I suppose this does technically count as an imaginary meeting...
John Mullan's 10 of the best: imaginary meetings:
James Barry and Florence Nightingale
Barry was a pioneering doctor who made his name in British colonies but became notorious after his death when it was realised that he was in fact a woman, Margaret Bulkley, who had disguised herself to pursue a medical career. In Sebastian Barry's play Whistling Psyche, she and the Lady of the Lamp exchange accounts of their sufferings as women in the world of men.
My initial thought was, but they did meet, and it was the clash of two extremely stroppy individuals, leading Florence to state that 'Dr Barry is no gentleman', which was possibly prescient, but something no-one else would have dared to hazard given Barry's fondness for challenging people to duels. However, I somehow feel that female bonding over the harsh world was not on the cards, and to envisage them thus does perhaps constitute an imaginary meeting (just Auden did know Britten, but they didn't meet in the particular circumstance Bennett posited).
On the other hand, they might well have found common ground on matters of sanitation, hygiene, and hospital design. This would probably not be dramatic enough for a play.
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