Mary Seacole - Nurse

The black Florence Knightingale

BORN NAME
Mary Grant
BIRTH DATE
1805
BIRTH PLACE
Kingston, Jamaica
OCCUPATION
Nurse
KNOWN FOR
Crimean war 1854
DIED
London 1881

Mary Grant was Born in Kingston, Jamaica. Her mother, a free black woman, worked as a ‘doctress’, caring mainly for sick and injured British soldiers stationed on the island. Her father was a Scottish army officer, and Mary came to love nursing and travelling.

read on to learn more about Mary........

In 1836, Mary married Edward Horatio Seacole, a godson of Lord Nelson. Never healthy, he died soon afterwards and Mary decided to make her own way in life. She took off on several journeys around the Caribbean and the southern states of America, using her doctoring skills to earn a decent living. She also had a good business sense and increased her income by setting up stores and dabbling in gold prospecting.

In 1854 she heard about the Crimean War raging in Europe and set off for England. She offered her services to the nursing agencies recruiting for the war effort but no-one would take her on. Even Florence Nightingale refused her an interview. Mary had encountered racial prejudice in America but had never expected to find it in London.

Finally, she made her own way to the front and quickly set up her "British Hotel". Here, Mary provided hot meals and other basic home comforts as well as looking after the sick and wounded. She also ventured into the battle zone, and news of her daring exploits soon reached England. Mary was hailed as a national heroine and received a commendation from Queen Victoria.

Mary had invested a lot of her own money in the hotel and when the war suddely ended in 1856, she was left bankrupt. However, a group of eminent statesmen, along with many of the soldiers she had cared for, contributed to a fund which quickly paid off her debts.

With her popularity riding high, Mary wrote her autobiography, The Wonderful Adventures of Mrs Seacole in Many Lands. It was an immediate bestseller and Mary was able to live the rest of her life in security and comfort. She died in London in 1881 where her gravestone in Kensal Rise Cemetery reads:

"Here lies a notable nurse who cared for the sick and wounded in the West Indies, in Panama and on the battle field of the Crimea".

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