Mary Seacole the nurse
Mary Seacole was born in Kingston, Jamaica, West Indies in 1805 to a Jamaican mother who ran a lodging house and passed down her knowledge of traditional Caribbean and African herbal medicine. Her father was Scottish. Watching her mother work was Mary's training ground. By the time she was a young woman, Mary was already an accomplished herbalist, healer and nurse.
When the Crimean War broke in 1853 she decided to travel to London to offer her services as a nurse. But despite her experience and enthusiasm
the War office repeatedly turned her down, so Nurse Seacole funded her own journey to the warfront. With no government support she travelled to Balaclava in Crimea where she built and
ran a boarding house known as The British Hotel. The hotel was a hospital for wounded soldiers and a store providing supplies. Nurse Seacole also treated men on the battlefield, she rode out in extreme conditions offering care and support. The soldiers she treated genuinely admired her and called her ‘Mother Seacole’. She earned that name not just for her medical skills but for her compassion.
When the war ended in 1856 Nurse Seacole returned to London penniless and in poor health, it was the soldiers she’d cared for who suggested raising funds on her behalf. A benefit festival was organised and thousands of people attended.
Mary Jane Seacole heroine of the Crimean War
Punch Magazine illustration published 30th May 1857
Nurse Seacole published her memoir The Wonderful Adventures of Mrs Seacole in Many Lands in 1857, making her one of the first Black women in Britain to write and publish an autobiography.
Mary Seacole died in 1881, she was buried in London.