Content area
Full Text
The mysterious killing of a Queen's Nurse in 1920 is the subject of a new book, writes Jennifer Trueland
It started with an intriguing snippet in a 90-year-old issue of the Queen's Nurses' Magazine. It read: 'The circumstances under which Miss Florence Nightingale Shore met her death at the hands of an unknown assailant in the train between Lewes and Bexhill on January 12 are too wellknown to need repetition.'
Reading this, Queen's Nursing Institute director Rosemary Cook, who had been looking for material to help celebrate 150 years of district nursing, found her curiosity stirred.
The victim's name was familiar, but the details of her murder were not. The cryptic reference prompted a quest that was to fill Ms Cook's every spare moment for the next two years.
'Obviously the name - Florence Nightingale Shore - caught my eye, and as I learned more about her, I became fascinated,' says Ms Cook. 'I wanted to write about her because I wanted people to know about her life as well as her death, and to see the roles that could be played by nurses, and by women in general, at that point in history.
'Plus, it was a great unsolved mystery - and I love a good detective story.'
Ms Shore turned out to be a Queen's Nurse and a god-daughter and distant cousin of Florence Nightingale. She was attacked on a train from London to Hastings on January 12 1920, and died of her injuries four days later.
The perpetrator was never identified, although the case involved some of the biggest names in criminal justice of the time, including pathologist Sir Bernard Spilsbury, who was instrumental in the conviction of notorious killer Dr Crippen.
The more Ms Cook investigated, the more details emerged. After being seen off at Victoria Station in London by close friend...