Dickens, Fry, Nightingale, Darwin, Wordsworth and Martineau. What are their intriguing connections?

Names from history can often seem to sit in splendid isolation, as though they are distant from and unaffected by, others of their time.

The truth is that many of their lives crossed, they shared visions and ideas, they had connections…

Here are just a few fascinating connections to dwell upon…

    • Elizabeth Fry, amongst other things, prison reformer, set up a nurses training school. Florence Nightingale took a group of these trained nurses with her to the Crimea
    • Florence Nightingale nurse and social reformer was close to Charles Dickens, she distributed his novels to soldiers in the Crimea and sat on committees with him such as those dealing with Workhouse Infirmary reform
    • Harriet Martineau, social reformer, writer, feminist and abolitionist was born in Gurney Court, the same place as Elizabeth Fry but 22 years later
    • Charles Darwin visited with Martineau and admired her work, she follows his work with avid interest
    • Harriet Martineau moves to Ambleside, in the Lake District, where she becomes friends with Wordsworth

Find out about your own intriguing connections and let us help you connect people and events in a new way. Visit Intriguing Family History to find out more about we can help you.

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