Black History Month: 12 October 2020
Mary Seacole was born in Kingston, Jamaica in 1805. Her father was a Scottish soldier, and her mother a Jamaican. Mary learned her nursing skills from her mother, who kept a boarding house for invalid soldiers. In 1850, she nursed victims of the Kingston cholera epidemic. She travelled to Panama in 1851 as the town of Cruces was suffering its own outbreak of the disease. In 1853, Mary returned to Kingston, caring for victims of a yellow fever epidemic.
In 1854, Seacole travelled to England, and went to the War Office, asking to be sent as an army nurse to the Crimea where there was known to be poor medical facilities for wounded soldiers. However, she was refused. Despite this, Seacole funded her own trip to the Crimea where she established the British Hotel to care for wounded soldiers. Unlike Florence Nightingale's hospital, Mary's hotel near Balaclava was much closer to the fighting. Mary was able to visit the battlefield, sometimes under fire, to nurse the wounded. Indeed, she nursed sick soldiers so kindly that they called her 'Mother Seacole'. When the war ended, Mary went back to Britain with very little money. Soldiers wrote letters to newspapers, praising what she had done. In 1857, a fund-raising gala was held for her over four nights on the banks of the River Thames and over 80,000 people attended.
Her legacy is continued by the Mary Seacole Trust (MST) which, as well as maintaining her statue, aims to educate and inform the public about her life, work and achievements, ensuring that her contribution to history is never forgotten.
Want to find out more about Mary Seacole? Click here for more information, or here for more about the Mary Seacole Trust.
No comments:
Post a Comment