Florence Nightingale is chiefly remembered for reform of hospital nursing in late nineteenth century, but scant attention has been paid to her involvement in establishment and development of district nursing throughout England. Nightingale believed that future of nursing lay in district nursing, with its dual aims of curative care and preventive education, yet historians of British nursing tend to concentrate on general nursing in hospital setting because that is where training occurred.1 District nursing, if it is mentioned at all in such studies, is seen as only a footnote to broader context of social history and philanthropy. The only official histories of district nursing were written by Mary Stocks and Monica Baly in 1960 and 1987, respectively,2and these two slim volumes remain main sources on Queen Victoria's Jubilee Institute for Nurses (QVJl), central body that standardized training and unified existing philanthropic schemes through its system of affiliation and inspection. Baly uses Stocks as her main secondary source, and although both books are factual and informative, their scope is limited by fact that they were commissioned to celebrate milestones in history of district nursing. They are, therefore, designed to be congratulatory and to emphasize positive progress over years. They concentrate on leading figures of movement, not on nurses themselves, and on details of politics and administration, not on day-to-day duties and problems involved in nursing sick poor in their own homes. It is aim of this article to help redress this imbalance in historiography of nursing. By examining Nightingale's views and aims, I argue that organizational structure of QVJI came closest of all branches of profession to her vision of future of nursing. The extent to which her theories were achieved in practice will be considered through analysis of Queen's Roll, which records personal and career details of each Queen's nurse. In particular, I will show how difficulties experienced in recruiting nurses for rural districts led to introduction of a second grade of district nurse, Village Nurse-Midwives. By analyzing records of District Nursing Associations in Gloucestershire, where rural branch of QVJI was founded, I discuss why QVJI failed to attract class of recruits Nightingale envisaged and how, nevertheless, it became central to national health and welfare policies. The Metropolitan Nursing Association By 1880s, Nightingale reforms had clearly had an effect on hospital nursing in England, despite entrenched views and professional jealousy of some doctors. The infirmary wards of workhouses had also been reformed and improved, and in rural areas almost 300 cottage hospitals had been established, which provided respite care for four to ten patients with a trained resident nurse and regular visits by a general practitioner. However, Nightingale herself believed that the ultimate destination of all nursing is nursing of sick in their own homes.3 As early as 1866, she had resolved to give herself to District Nursing.4 At that time, Nightingale was offering advice and support to William Rathbone, a philanthropic merchant who was establishing a scheme of district nursing in his home town of Liverpool. At Nightingale's suggestion, in 1862, Liverpool Training School and Home for Nurses was opened in connection with Liverpool Royal Infirmary. Thus, precedent was set that district nurses should be hospital trained, preferably under Nightingale reformed system, as well as being specially trained in district work. By 1867, city of Liverpool had been divided into eighteen districts, each with its own nurses. In 1868, Rathbone was elected a Liberal MP and consequently spent part of each year in London. The personal contact this enabled him to make with Nightingale led to a lifelong friendship and mutual admiration. …