ABSTRACT
Florence Nightingale was a new kind of heroine, the ‘lady with the lamp’, the British woman at the epicentre of danger, supporting the faint-hearted, though the black nurse, Mary Seacole, seems to have been too difficult for the bewildered British to assimilate, at least on the stage. Many at home read the despatches from the battle front, especially those of W.H. Russell in The Times, and not only were most plays modelled on his reports, several included a war correspondent character, which somehow lent events on stage an extra authenticity. Astley’s staged The Affghanistan War! in 1843, The Conquest of Scinde in 1845, The Sikh Invasion followed by The Conquest of Lahore in 1846 and Mooltan and Goojerat in 1849. The stage’s soldier hero, forged in the Crimean War plays, was in danger of being superseded by a post-Florence Nightingale heroic woman, but at the critical moment, Matilda faints and Colonel Hewson takes charge, vindicating the soldier’s honour.
