Two great women

It is astonishing that the lives of two such remarkable women – Florence Nightingale and Elizabeth Fry – should have crossed. They came from similar backgrounds and, driven by something powerful within, fought the social restraints of the day to forge their places in history.

The plight of the poor, the homeless, the sick stirred both women when very young and prepared them for the work that lay ahead. Turning their backs on society, on music and dancing, they entered worlds considered way beneath their social class.

Hear how the older Elizabeth Fry, gentle Quaker prison reformer, influenced the independent, feisty younger woman and how both could teach 21st century women a thing or two today.

Free with paid admission to the museum
Averil Douglas Opperman is a journalist and writer living in Worcestershire. She grew up in a Quaker family in Dublin and has always been fascinated by Elizabeth Fry whose story she brings to life in While It Is Yet Day.