Mary Seacole

Mary Seacole
A portrait of Seacole, c. 1869, by Albert Charles Challen.
Born	Mary Jane Grant 1805 Kingston, Jamaica
Died	14 May 1881 (aged 75) Paddington, London, England
Other names	Mother Seacole
Citizenship	British
Occupation	nurse, hotelier, boarding house keeper, author, world traveller
Known for	Assistance to sick and wounded military personnel during Crimean War
Honours	Order of Merit (Jamaica)

Mary Jane Seacole OM (née Grant; 1805 – 14 May 1881) was a Jamaican business woman who set up the British Hotel behind the lines during the Crimean War. She described this as "a mess-table and comfortable quarters for sick and convalescent officers", and provided succour for wounded servicemen on the battlefield. She was posthumously awarded the Jamaican Order of Merit in 1991. In 2004 she was voted the greatest black Briton.

She acquired knowledge of herbal medicine in the Caribbean. When the Crimean War broke out, she applied to the War Office to assist but was refused. She travelled independently and set up her hotel and assisted battlefield wounded. She became extremely popular among service personnel, who raised money for her when she faced destitution after the war.

After her death, she was largely forgotten for almost a century but today is celebrated as a woman who successfully combated racial prejudice. Her autobiography, Wonderful Adventures of Mrs. Seacole in Many Lands (1857), is one of the earliest autobiographies of a mixed-race woman, although some aspects of its accuracy have been questioned, with it being claimed that Seacole's achievements have been exaggerated for political reasons. The erection of a statue of her at St Thomas' Hospital, London on 30 June 2016, describing her as a "pioneer nurse", has generated controversy. Earlier controversy broke out in the United Kingdom late in 2012 over reports of a proposal to remove her from the UK's National Curriculum.

Mary Seacole was born Mary Jane Grant in Kingston, Jamaica, the daughter of James Grant a Scottish Lieutenant in the British Army and a free Jamaican woman. Her mother was a "doctress", a healer who used traditional Caribbean and African herbal remedies, who ran Blundell Hall, a boarding house at 7 East Street, considered one of the best hotels in all Kingston. Here Seacole acquired her nursing skills. Seacole's autobiography says she began experimenting in medicine, based on what she learned from her mother, by ministering to a doll and then progressing to pets before helping her mother treat humans.