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Source: Letter to Margaret Verney, Wellcome (Claydon copy) Ms 9015/75 20 June 1896 . . . I wish, oh how I wish that some life could be made for Harry [Lloyd Verney]. He has absolutely no application for anything but dancing. And he wants to play the rich young man and ‘‘bon parti.’’ His father did not wish him to return to Vienna. And, as you say of the other, the things he, Harry, says make one’s hair stand on end; he wants to be a private secretary, but of a Cabinet minister,313 if you please!!! . . . Source: Letter to Margaret and Edmund Verney, Wellcome (Claydon copy) Ms 9015/100 9 July 1897 . . . I have two letters from Harry Lloyd at the British Legation in Athens. He seems getting on very well and it sets him on his legs. I only hope the Turks are not set on their legs too. . . . Godchildren and Namesakes Editor: Quite apart from her many godchildren and namesakes from after the Crimean War, Nightingale had two godchildren before she became famous: Florence Howe later Hall (1845-1922), daughter of her friends Dr Samuel Gridley Howe and Julia Ward Howe, and Carl Fliedner (1853-1930), son of Pastor and Mrs Fliedner. For both of these children Nightingale was an official godmother, although she did not attend the baptisms (in the United States and Germany respectively). For Carl Fliedner she not only sent gifts and later organized references for a medical appointment, but she contributed money for his upbringing.314 She had early declined to be godmother to a Herbert infant, for reasons set out in the letter to Pastor Fliedner below. Yet she did later become godmother to other Church of England families, notably the Edmund Verneys (Ruth Florence Verney and Harry Calvert Verney, with both of whom there is correspondence below) and Fred Verney’s Kathleen. She stood godmother to the son of her colleague Florence Lees Craven, whose husband was a Church of England clergyman (to and about whom there is correspondence). She 313 In fact he held many posts in the royal household, was knighted, and was private secretary to Queen Mary. 314 Letter to Harry Verney 12 May 1869, Wellcome (Claydon copy) Ms 9003/105. Letters to, from and about Nightingale’s Extended Family / 717 was godmother to a daughter of her favourite suitor, Richard Monckton Milnes, Florence Ellen. Nightingale met her and her sister occasionally , sent them books and inquired after them.315 Nightingale agreed in 1861 to become godmother to Herbert Galton , named after Sidney Herbert, the son of her cousin Marianne (Nicholson) and Douglas Galton, who had worked with Sidney Herbert at the War Office. Nightingale described the boy’s unhappy death in 1862 as a deep loss to Galton (see a letter to her mother p 150 above). She is said to have been the godmother of Florence Paget, daughter of Frances Paget (1834-1912) and granddaughter of the Rev Richard Garth of Farnham, whom Nightingale knew through visits to the poor around Waverley Abbey, the Nicholson home.316 Nightingale became godmother to the granddaughter of her good friend and collaborator, Sir John McNeill, Florence (Stewart) Macalister. There is no surviving correspondence to her, but references only and messages. She wrote a biography of McNeill which includes correspondence with Nightingale.317 It seems, from a letter below and a gift, that Nightingale was also godmother to a grandson of Sir John McNeill. According to Cook (Life 2:389), Nightingale was godmother to Malcolm, son of Hugh Bonham Carter, but there is no correspondence regarding this. She was godmother to another Bonham Carter, Edith, with whom there is nursing correspondence. At least three children in her own extended family were named after her: Florence Anne Mary Clough, ‘‘Flossie’’ (1858-c1901); Florence Nightingale Shore, daughter of William Entwistle Shore, born 1863, but who died a few days later;318 and a second Florence Nightingale Shore (c1864-c1919), daughter of Offley Bohun Shore, who was also a godchild (several of her letters have survived, but not Nightingale ’s replies). This last godchild expressed her childhood desire ‘‘to become a hospital nurse . . . probably inspired by your kind interest in being my godmother.’’ In asking for advice on obtaining training she stated that her ‘‘ultimate hopes are to become an Army nurse as you were.’’319 In fact she trained as a district nurse at the Bloomsbury 315 See correspondence with their father in Society and Politics. 316 ‘‘Florence Nightingale and...

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