A NURSING director from York has written a book about the unsolved murder of a former York schoolgirl – the god-daughter of nursing pioneer Florence Nightingale, writes Lucy Snow.

Rosemary Cook, of Dringhouses, has investigated the case of Florence Nightingale Shore, who was viciously attacked on a train in Bexhill, Sussex, in January 1920, and later died in hospital.

Florence was a former pupil of Middlethorpe Hall School at Bishopthorpe, and trained as a nurse at the Queen’s Nursing Institute in London, where Rosemary is now director.

Rosemary became intrigued by the mystery after reading about Florence in the Queen’s Nurses’ Magazine. She said: “There was very little detail, so I started to do some family history research to find out more about her.”

The book explores the theories of famous pathologist Sir Bernard Spilsbury, and the police investigation of the time.

Their focus was on “a man in a brown suit,” who left the train at the stop before Bexhill, but Rosemary’s research has led her in a different direction.

She said: “A man claimed to have been the first into the carriage to find Florence injured, and he could describe the scene in detail.

“Yet no one at the scene remembers him, and he was never called to give evidence at the inquest.

“It is impossible to be sure after all this time, but I think there are some searching questions to be asked of John Smith, from Brighton.”

The Queen’s Nursing Institute is a charity which aims to maintain and improve the quality of nursing care in the home.

A proportion of the profits from the book will be given to the charity.

The Nightingale Shore Murder is on sale at £8.99, and is also available as an ebook for £6.89.