DO NOT ditch Flo. That is the message from angry Romsey residents on learning that schools have been told to axe Hampshire's legendary nurse from the curriculum - in favour of an Irish woman pirate.

The Qualifications and Curriculum Authority is recommending that schools concentrate on obscure 16th century Irish pirate Grace O'Malley because teachers may be "jaded" with the founder of modern nursing.

The famous Lady of the Lamp, brought up at Embley Park and buried in St Margeret's Church, East Wellow, is named in the Key Stage One curriculum for children aged five to seven.

Latest QCA guidance states: "Are you in danger of becoming jaded with teaching about Florence Nightingale? Are you looking for an alternative female to illuminate the "lives of significant men, women and children drawn from history" in history at Key Stage One?"

It offers Grace O'Malley, who was twice imprisoned and who slaughtered hundreds of Spaniards in battle in 1588, as "an alternative significant woman".

The suggestion has infuriated Romsey historians, including enthusiasts at St Margaret's Church setting up a £20,000 audio-visual Florence Nightingale exhibition.

A Hampshire teaching union boss has even dubbed it "political correctness gone mad".

Romsey historian Phoebe Merrick said: "It's a great shame. The importance of Florence Nightingale is not the sentimental twaddle about wandering round with a lamp - it's the fact that she was a serious nursing administrator who contributed an enormous amount.

"What was so fascinating was that she was complaining about what was expected of her as a single woman in Victorian society and at the same time she was making breakthroughs in nursing administration."

Jean Clarke, editor of St Margaret's Church magazine, said: "Everyone in Wellow is very proud of the connection and Florence Nightingale was being studied at Wellow School long before her inclusion in the National Curriculum.

"We have many school children and trainee nurses coming to the church to find out more about her and we're trying to raise £20,000 for the display. It would be a great shame if Florence Nightingale was dropped from the curriculum. She was one of the greatest Victorians."

Hampshire National Association of Schoolmasters and Union of Women Teachers (NASUWT) spokesman Ron Clooney said Florence Nightingale was the victim of a current desire to shake off Britain's imperialist past.

"Just because she was from an upper class family and lived in a country house she's being ousted. The QCA can't just pick and choose bits of history that fit into the political correctness of the day.

"It debunks education and it's complete lunacy," he added.

A QCA spokesman has said: "I think Grace is just being used as an example. That's not to diminish Florence Nightingale's very important contribution."