Commemoration Service 2012 -
Florence Nightingale's life and work remembered

The annual service held to celebrate nursing and midwifery and all staff, both qualified and unqualified working in these services.

Florence Nightingale's life and work will be commemorated at the special service on 9 May at 6.15 pm. Nurses, midwives, health visitors and government ministers will be amongst those attending the service which is held annually at Westminster Abbey. The 2012 service will celebrate nurses across the board and recognise the balance of skill and intellect coupled with care and compassion and will start the celebrations for International Nurses' Day on 12 May.

The Reverend Professor Vernon White, Canon in Residence will lead the service and the Address will be given by Lord Carey, former Archbishop of Canterbury.

A lamp – symbolic of Florence Nightingale – will be taken from the Florence Nightingale Chapel during the service and escorted by a procession of nurses to The Reverend Professor Vernon White who places it on the High Altar.

This year the Lamp will be carried by Claire Gibbs and it will be escorted by student nurses from Liverpool John Moores University.

The Florence Nightingale Chapel will be open to visit before the service. Formerly the Nurses' Chapel it was rededicated in May 2010 in the centennial year of Nightingale's death. The Chapel in the Abbey's North Ambulatory, which since 1532 has been the chantry chapel for Abbot John Islip and since the Second World War has been dedicated to the Nurses and Midwives of the Commonwealth who gave their lives in that war. It is dedicated in honour of Florence Nightingale and all nurses and midwives and those in the allied healthcare professions.

To attend the Service please complete and return the attached ticket pro-forma. Tickets for the Service are free and allocated on a first come, first served basis. Please note all requests for tickets must be received by Friday 23 March, 2012.