2. Mary Seacole, 1805-1881, pioneering nurse and heroine of the Crimean War
Mary Seacole , a pioneering nurse and heroine of the Crimean War was a woman of mixed race born Mary Jane Grant in Kingston, Jamaica, in 1805. She was daughter of a Scottish soldier and a Jamaican mother.
She learned nursing from her mother, who kept a boarding house for invalid soldiers. Because of her mixed race, Mary and her family were technically “free” — slavery did not end in Jamaica until 1834 — but had few civil rights. They could not vote, hold public office or enter the professions. In 1836, Mary married Edwin Seacole, but he died in 1844.
Before her marriage, Seacole visited other parts of the Caribbean, including Cuba, Haiti and the Bahamas, as well as Central America and Britain. On these trips, she complemented her knowledge of traditional medicine with European medical ideas.
In 1854, Seacole travelled to England again, and approached the War Office, asking to be sent as an army nurse to the Crimea where medical facilities for wounded soldiers were known to be poor, but she was refused. Seacole funded her own trip to the Crimea where she established the British Hotel near Balaclava for sick and convalescent officers. She also visited the battlefield, sometimes under fire, to nurse the wounded, and became known as “Mother Seacole.” Her reputation rivalled that of Florence Nightingale.
After the war, she returned to England destitute and in ill health. The press highlighted her plight, and, in July 1857, a benefit festival was organised to raise money for her, attracting thousands of people. Later that year, Seacole published her memoirs, The Wonderful Adventures of Mrs Seacole in Many Lands.
Seacole died on 14 May 1881.