Mary Seacole

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"...she inspires me and we need a statue for her as a tangible reminder; because she is a towering icon of triumph over adversity"

Bernell Bussue, MSMSA Trustee

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A contemporary of Florence Nightingale, Mary Seacole went to the Crimean War, to help British soldiers. She nursed sick and wounded soldiers. When battles were raging, she gave everyone food, blankets, clean clothes and kindness. The soldiers called her 'Mother Seacole'.

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Mary was born in 1805, on the Caribbean island of Jamaica. She first visited Britain as a young woman. Later she ran a hotel in Panama. After the Crimean War she lived in Britain.

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She did what few other women did in the Victorian age. She was a traveller. She ran a business. She went to a war. If people refused to help her, perhaps because of racial prejudice, she still did what she believed was right. She risked her life to help others.

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Mary Seacole died in London in 1881.

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"I trust that England will not forget one who nursed her sick,

who sought out her wounded to aid and succour them, and who performed the last offices for some of her illustrious dead"

Sir William Russell, The Times Crimean war correspondent - 1857

 

Source: BBC primary history