Although born Catholic Clara didn’t exercise her religious practices. The youngest of five children Clara learned horseback riding, mathematics, reading and writing from her siblings at an early age. At the age of eight she was sent away to Colonel Richard School where she did not last long. At the young age of 11, a shy Clara Barton displayed her nursing potential in the way she tended to convalescent brother, David, for two years after a fall from a barn. To overcome her shyness Clara’s parents were advised to put her in teaching school by a visiting …show more content…
While visiting Switzerland in 1869 Barton was introduced to Dr. Louis Appia, a member of the Committee of Five (currently the ICRC), an organisation that arose from the first Geneva Convention of 1864. When the Franco-Prussian War broke out in 1870, Clara Barton, along with the Grand Duchess Louise of Baden, organised relief efforts in Strasbourg, France, and later in Paris under the patronage of the International Red Cross. In 1872 she suffered temporary loss in her eyesight due to exhaustion. She moved to England to recuperate, and later in October returned to the United States where she made full