The thesis considers primary, contemporaneous documents and secondary sources concerning Florence Nightingale, her motives and experiences with the profession of midwifery. The thesis sets Nightingale within her family context and that of mid Victorian England, drawing on previous biographies, an autobiographical account (Cassandra), historical evidence and literature. The main events investigated take place following her return from the Crimean War and are focused on the work of Nightingale in relation to the profession of midwifery, childbirth, infection and maternal mortality, placing Nightingale in the English and European nineteenth century midwifery context and investigating the rationale for the commissioning of the Nightingale School for Midwives at King's College Hospital, London in 1862 followed by its subsequent closure five years later and the publication of Notes on Lying-in Institutions in 1871. The two events are linked, although the focus of the research is an investigation of evidence to substantiate Nightingale's reason for commissioning a training school for midwives. Evidence is ascertained through life documents including biographies, letters and other contemporaneous documents written by and to her or pertaining to the work, in particular, of the Nightingale Fund. These are reviewed using the biographical method and Nightingale's rationale is finally exposed within a complex web of personal and organisational inter-relationships.