Jamaican-born Crimean nurse heads great black Britons list
Sunday, December 21, 2003
LONDON, England: A nurse who comforted dying soldiers during the Crimean War is leading the contenders in the race to find the 100 Great Black Britons, according to a report by the Press Association.
The work of Mary Seacole has been overshadowed in the history books by those of her contemporary Florence Nightingale.
Born in Kingston, Jamaica in 1805, of Jamaican/Scottish parentage, she learned her nursing skills from her mother who kept a boarding house for invalid soldiers.
In 1826, she married Edward Seacole and they travelled around other Caribbean islands, as well as America and England, which enabled her to add European medical ideas to her existing knowledge.
She later described her travels in the autobiography The Wonderful Adventures of Mrs Seacole in Many Lands.
In 1854 she went to England and approached the war office to ask to be sent as an army nurse to the Crimea.
Because of her ethnicity she was refused interviews. But she funded her own trip, setting up the British Hotel, and providing soldiers with accommodation, food and nursing care.
On the battlefield she looked after the wounded and was known as "Mother Seacole".
When the war ended in 1856 she found herself in financial difficulties but her supporters in England established and contributed to a fund championed by The Times newspaper.
She was awarded the Crimean Medal, the French Legion of Honour and a Turkish medal.
She spent her remaining days travelling back and forth between England and Jamaica.
She died in 1881 and is buried in St Mary's Catholic cemetery, Kensal Green, north west London.
She leads the poll ahead of writer Mary Prince (1788-unknown), whose work The History Of Mary Prince, A West Indian Slave, became a rallying cry for freedom from slavery.
Voting on the web site - www.100greatblackbritons.com - ends on January 1.
The poll marks the achievements of people of African descent who have lived in the United Kingdom.
The results will be published in February to coincide with Black History Month in the United States.
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