Black women of History:Mary Grant Seacole.

A portrait painting of Mary Seacole
 by Albert challen 1869.

Mary Seacole also known as Mother Seacole,is a Jamaican nurse born 1805; whose bravery and service in the Crimean war has made famous and significant to British history.
During the Crimean war, there were urgent need for nurses to serve in the  nursing of wounded British soldiers. On hearing this, Mary Seacole who has acquired so much knowledge of medicine and nursing care from her mother; a then alternative healer, volunteered to be a part of the service. She travelled to London, to join in. Elisabeth Herbert who was the wife of the then secretary of war refused even to see her.Mary again was denied the opportunity.Seacole did not stop at that, she made her own arrangement and went to the Balaclava anyway. When she got there, she put herself forward again to serve in the Florence Nightingale team, but yet was refused. Despite the mistreatment and refusal by these Victorian British women, Mary Seacole(Mary Grant at that time),never gave up on her mission. She funded her self to establish a recuperation home: "British Hotel". There she practised herbal medicine and gave medical consultations to the military officers.
Solely funding the operation without resorting to public fund, Mary could not afford to give her services without charge. So she provided care for those officers who could afford to pay. She was brave enough to have her establishment near the front line and would sometimes, go to the battlefield to nurse the wounded soldiers.She  became well known to most of the soldiers at the Crimean war so  that on her return, she recieved a grand welcome from the military officers.
Not able to contend with the attention Mary received, the Victorian British women again started a rumour of Mary's immorality alleging that she used her "British Hotel" for a brothel and accused her of having a child outside wedlock a thing that wasn't acceptable at the time. Though these claims were never confirmed as this child was never mentioned in her autobiography.

Mary Seacole, picture by Maull and company
London,1873.

At the end of the Crimean war, Mary Seacole came back to London to find how much debt she had incurred, she then became bankrupt. However, her friends helped to raise funds for her, hence a Seacole fund grand military festival was held at the Royal surrey Gardens in her honour in 1857. Though at the end, the funds raised  hardly got to her.

Seacole, then decided to try another strategy. She went on to write and publish her own autobiography- The Adventures of Mrs Seacole in Many Lands. A medium she used to narrate all that she went through and her contributions in nursing and caring for the British soldiers in the Crimean war. She also talked about her other experiences and travels. This made her the first Black woman in Britain to have her autobiography published.She later died in London of stroke in 1881.

Until 1973, all about Mary was forgotten except for the Jamaican nurses association that named their building in her name. Her grave was rediscovered and reconsecrated. her autobiography later republished bringing her story back to life. Her story then was added to Britain's National Curriculum. In 2004, she was voted the greatest Black Briton and finally had her portrait in the National portrait gallery.Pearlwoman!


plaque commemorating
Mary Seacole at 14 Soho sq London W1.

Black women of history:Mary Grant Seacole by Fauntee is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.