English: This extraordinary, never seen before photograph of nursing pioneer Florence Nightingale shortly before her death, is set to be sold at auction. 10th Sept 2008.The rare black and white image of a silver-haired Florence shows her in the imposing bedroom of her home just off London's Park Lane, shortly before she died at the age of 90. Florence Nightingale - known as the Lady of the Lamp - worked selflessly as young nurse during the Crimean War and later, as a hospital reformer, won an everlasting place in British history.Her nursing skills and tireless campaigning to clean up filthy Army field hospitals in the Crimea dramatically slashed the death rates of wounded soldiers from typhoid and cholera between 1854 and 1856. Now the evocative photograph, which depicts a camera-shy Florence as she neared the end of her life in 1910, is due to go under the hammer. It shows an ailing Florence resting in the grand bedroom of her home in South Street, a stone's throw from London's Hyde Park.