Born 1805 – Died 1881

Mary Seacole was a pioneering nurse and heroine of the Crimean War, who as a woman of mixed race overcame a double prejudice. Mary was born in Jamaica to a Scottish father and Jamaican mother. Mary learned her nursing skills from her mother, who kept a boarding house for invalid soldiers.  Mary and her family had few civil rights – they could not vote, hold public office or enter the professions. In 1836, Mary married Edwin Seacole. Seacole visited other parts of the Caribbean, as well as Central America and Britain, gaining more medical knowledge from her travels.  In 1854, Seacole travelled to England again, asking to be sent as an army nurse to the Crimea where there was known to be poor medical facilities for wounded soldiers. She was refused because of her race. Determined, Seacole funded her own trip to the Crimea where she established the British Hotel near Balaclava to provide care for sick and wounded soldiers.. 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. Seacole published her memoirs, ‘The Wonderful Adventures of Mrs Seacole in Many Lands’.