F.N. Born 12 May 1820, Died 13 August 1910 – Florence Nightingale’s grave is strangely silent about the achievements of one of 19th century England’s most lauded public figures. “A wild swan” to her mother, “the lady with the lamp” to the readers of the Illustrated London News, the founder of modern nursing was many things: a tireless campaigner, an accomplished statistician and even the author of a novella, Cassandra.

We will mark the centenary of Nightingale’s death with a privileged tour of the newly-extended Nightingale Museum, housed on the site of the pioneering nursing school that she founded at St Thomas’s Hospital in 1860. The remains of the original hospital – named after Thomas Becket and Thomas the Apostle – lie eastwards around a bend in the Thames. Tucked away at the top of a rickety spiral staircase in the attic of St Thomas’s Church is one of London’s least expected curiosities: an early 19th century operating theatre, the country’s oldest, and a lonely garret used by the hospital’s apothecary to store and cure medicinal herbs.

Our course will begin with an overnight stay in the mediaeval town of Buckingham at the four-star Hotel Villiers – an ideal base for exploring Claydon House, home of Nightingale’s brother-in-law, Sir Harry Verney. Nightingale was a regular visitor to the house (now owned by the National Trust) and we will enjoy a guided tour of Claydon’s centenary exhibition in the company of its curator.