TRAILBLAZER
MARY SEACOL
Mary Seacole was born in 1805 , Kingston , Jamaica and died in 1881 , London , England . She is best known for nursing British soldiers during the Crimean War ( 1853-1856 ), at a time when prejudice against women and Black people was rife , and discrimination was legal .
Mary Seacole inherited her desire to nurse soldiers from both of her parents : Her father was a Scottish soldier and her mother was a free Black Jamaican woman , who was an expert in traditional medicine .
Mary married Edwin Horatio Seacole ( the godson of Admiral Nelson ) in 1836 , and the two travelled around the Caribbean .
In 2004 , Seacole came in first place in a poll for the ' 100 Great Black Britions '
Seacole began nursing after she encountered a cholera epidemic in Panama and yellow fever in Jamaica .
In 1854 , a widowed Seacole was living in London when she heard about the poor quality of nursing for British soldiers in the Crimean War . Seacole applied to serve as an army nurse but was refused . While she now had extensive experience in nursing , Seacole knew that racial prejudice was behind this rejection .
Undeterred , Seacole was supported by her late husband ’ s family and she left for Crimea . On her way , Seacole crossed paths with another pioneering nurse , Florence Nightingale , while in Turkey .
14 July 2022