An ordinary meeting of the Society, which was followed by the AGM, was held on Wednesday 7th October 2020 on Zoom. The President opened the meeting and introduced the speaker, Sophie Hacker, a well known artist, who delivered the Florence Nightingale 200th Anniversary Lecture with the title Remembering Florence Nightingale.
Sophie said she was asked to design and make a stained glass window for the South Transept of Romsey Abbey in memory of Florence Nightingale on the 200th anniversary of her birth. She said she wanted to reflect Florence’s personal beliefs and motivations in her design. She read a lot about Florence and, in particular, went to the FN Museum in St Thomas’ Hospital which she found very atmospheric and helpful and how some of the personal items displayed inspired her initial drawing. She also spoke to Florence’s great Nephew. When Florence was 16 she was seated in the garden of her home, Embley Park, when she felt she heard a call from God. Sophie in her design made this moment the centrepiece and around this central drawing put all the important references to her life. In the picture of her in the garden Florence is turning away from us to hear the call. Sophie then described the process of making a full size drawing to the size of the very large window and then described how she marked out on it the tiny pieces that would make up the stained glass window. This had to be done with 100% accuracy. Stained glass is very expensive and mistakes cannot be made! These templates are then sent to a stained glass firm to create the pieces and then have to be fixed together to make the window. She showed pictures of the window being put in place in the Abbey which was happening on the day of her talk having been delayed by the pandemic.. The window can now be seen in the South Transept of Romsey Abbey and a book explaining the complicated process of designing and making the window can be purchased at the Abbey.
The President thanked Sophie for her fascinating talk.
The meeting then moved onto the AGM the minutes of which are recorded separately and will be circulated prior to the next AGM