   #copyright

Mary Seacole

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: British History 1750-1900

   A portrait of Mary Seacole in oils, c.1869, by the obscure London
   artist Albert Charles Challen (1847–81). The original is on loan to the
   National Portrait Gallery in London, courtesy Helen Rappaport.
   A portrait of Mary Seacole in oils, c.1869, by the obscure London
   artist Albert Charles Challen (1847–81). The original is on loan to the
   National Portrait Gallery in London, courtesy Helen Rappaport.

   Mary Jane Seacole ( 1805 – 14 May 1881) was a mixed-race British nurse.
   Born in Jamaica, she operated boarding houses in Panama and Crimea
   while simultaneously treating the sick. Seacole was taught herbal
   remedies and folk medicine by her mother. Always of a nomadic
   disposition, on hearing of the terrible conditions of the Crimean War
   and certain that her knowledge of tropical medicine would be of use,
   she travelled to London and volunteered as a nurse. Although an expert
   at dealing with cholera, her application to join Florence Nightingale's
   team was rejected.

   She then borrowed money to make the 4,000 mile journey alone. On
   arrival she distinguished herself, treating the wounded on the
   battlefield. On many occasions treating wounded soldiers from both
   sides while under fire whereas Florence Nightingale and her nurses were
   based in a hospital in Turkey. Following the cessation of hostilities
   in 1856 she found herself stranded and almost destitute, and was saved
   from penury by the Commander-in-Chief of the British Forces Lord Rokeby
   who organized a benefit.

   Seacole was lauded in her lifetime, alongside Florence Nightingale, but
   after her death was forgotten for almost 100 years. Today she is noted
   not only for her bravery and medical skills but as "a woman who
   succeeded despite the racial prejudice of influential sections of
   Victorian society"

   Her autobiography, Wonderful Adventures of Mrs. Seacole in Many Lands
   (1857), a vivid account of her life and experiences, is one of the
   earliest autobiographies by a black woman.

Early life, 1805–26

   Seacole was born in Kingston, Jamaica as Mary Grant, the daughter of a
   white Scottish officer in the British Army and a free Jamaican Creole
   woman. Seacole's mother was a "doctress", a healer who used traditional
   Caribbean and African herbal remedies. She ran Blundell Hall, a
   boarding house at 7 East Street in Kingston, at the lower end of the
   road closer to the harbour, and, at the time, one of the best hotels in
   Kingston. Many of the residents were invalid Europeans, particularly
   soldiers and sailors, often suffering from the endemic yellow fever
   caught soon after their arrival in the tropics. Here Seacole acquired
   her nursing skills. She records early experiments, imitating her mother
   by ministering to a doll, progressing to domestic pets, before finally
   helping her mother to treat human beings.

   Seacole was proud of her Scottish ancestry, calling herself a "Creole",
   a term which at the time was used most commonly either in a racially
   neutral sense or to refer to the offspring of white settlers. Legally,
   she would have been classified as a " mulatto", a person of mixed race
   with limited political rights. Robinson speculates that she may
   technically have been a " quadroon". Seacole emphasises several times
   her personal vigour, distancing herself from the contemporary
   stereotype of the "lazy Creole". However, she also proclaims to be
   "proud of [her] relationship" with black American slaves demonstrated
   by the "few shades deeper brown upon [her] skin".

   The West Indies were an extremely lucrative outpost of the British
   Empire in the late eighteenth century. In 1789, one fifth of Britain's
   foreign trade was with the British West Indies, increasing to a third
   in the 1790s. Britain's economic interests were protected by a massive
   military presence, with some 69 line infantry regiments serving there
   from 1793 to 1801, and another 24 from 1803 to 1815.

   Seacole spent some years in the household of an elderly woman, whom
   Seacole calls her "kind patroness", before returning to her mother. She
   appears to have been treated a member of her patroness's family,
   receiving a good education. As the educated daughter of a Scottish
   officer and a free black woman with a respectable business, Seacole
   would have been accorded a relatively high position in Jamaican
   society.

   Circa 1821 Seacole visited London staying for a year she visited
   relations - the merchant Henriques family). Although London had a
   significant population of black people, she records that a companion, a
   West Indian with skin darker than her own "dusky" shades, was taunted
   by children in the street. Seacole herself was "only a little brown",
   which was nearly white, according to Ramdin. Undaunted, she returned to
   London approximately a year later, on this occasion bringing a "large
   stock of West Indian pickles and preserves for sale". From this time
   on, her later travels would be as an "unprotected" woman, without
   chaperone or sponsor, an unusual disposition for the era. Seacole
   returned to Jamaica in 1825

In the Caribbean, 1826-1851

   A watercolour of Mary Seacole, with sleeves rolled up ready for action.
   c.1850.
   A watercolour of Mary Seacole, with sleeves rolled up ready for action.
   c.1850.

   After returning to Jamaica Seacole nursed her "old indulgent patroness"
   through an illness. Finally returning to the family home at Blundell
   Hall after the death of her patroness a few years later. Seacole then
   worked alongside her mother. Occasionally being called to assist at the
   British Army hospital at Up-Park Camp. During this period she traveled
   in the Caribbean, visiting the English colony of New Providence in the
   Bahamas, and the Spanish colony of Cuba, and new republic of Haiti.
   Seacole records these travels, but omits mention of significant current
   events, such as the Christmas Rebellion in Jamaica of 1831, and the
   partial abolition of slavery in 1834 or the full abolition of slavery
   in 1838.

   Seacole married Edwin Horatio Hamilton Seacole in Kingston on 10
   November 1836. Her marriage from betrothment to widowhood is described
   in just nine lines at the conclusion of the first chapter of her
   autobiography. Unusually, in a time when mixed-race relationships were
   common but mixed-race marriages were rare, he was a white man, baptised
   in Prittlewell in Essex in 1803, the sixth son of Thomas Seacole and
   his first wife, Ann. His middle names are intriguing: Robinson reports
   the legend in the Seacole family that Edwin was an illegitimate son of
   Horatio Nelson and Emma Hamilton, adopted by Thomas, a local "surgeon,
   apothecary and man midwife". Seacole's will indicates that Horatio
   Seacole was Nelson's godson: she left a diamond ring to her friend,
   Lord Rokeby, "given to my late husband by his Godfather Viscount
   Nelson", although Robinson notes no mention of this godson was made in
   Nelson's will or its codicils. Edwin was a merchant, but seems to have
   had a poor constitution. The newly married couple moved to Black River
   and opened a provisions store, which failed to prosper. They returned
   to Blundell Hall in the early 1840s.

   During 1843 and 1844 Seacole suffered series of personal disasters. She
   and her family lost much property in a fire in Kingston on 29 August
   1843. Blundell Hall burned down, and was replaced by New Blundell Hall,
   "better than before". Then her husband died in October 1844, followed
   by her mother. After a period of desperate grief, in which Seacole says
   she did not stir for days, she composed herself, "turned a bold front
   to fortune", and assumed the management of her mother's hotel. She put
   her rapid recovery down to her hot Creole blood, blunting the "sharp
   edge of [her] grief" sooner than Europeans who "nurse their woe
   secretly in their hearts". She absorbed herself in work, declining many
   offers of marriage. Seacole became widely known and respected,
   particularly amongst the European military visitors to Jamaica who
   often stayed at Blundell Hall. She treated patients in the cholera
   epidemic of 1850, which killed some 32,000 Jamaicans. Seacole
   attributed the outbreak to infection brought on a steamer from New
   Orleans, demonstrating knowledge of contagion theory. This first-hand
   experience benefited her in the following five years.

In Central America, 1851–1854

   Panama was the favoured route between the coasts of the United States.
   Seacole spent the early 1850s there, where she nursed the sick during a
   cholera epidemic in 1851
   Panama was the favoured route between the coasts of the United States.
   Seacole spent the early 1850s there, where she nursed the sick during a
   cholera epidemic in 1851

   In 1850, Seacole's half-brother Edward moved to Cruces, Panama, then
   part of New Granada. There, approximately 45 miles (70 km) up the
   Chagres River from the coast, he followed the family trade by
   establishing the "Independent Hotel" to accommodate the many travelers
   between the east coast and west coasts of the United States. The number
   of travelers had increased due to the 1849 California Gold Rush. Cruces
   was the limit of navigability of the Chagres River during the rainy
   season, from June to December. Travelers would ride donkeys
   approximately 20 miles along the Las Cruces trail from Panama City on
   the Pacific coast to Cruces, and then 45 miles downriver to the
   Atlantic at Chagres (or vice versa). In the dry season, the river
   subsided, and travelers would switch from land to the river a few miles
   further downstream, at Gorgona. Most of these settlements have now been
   submerged by Gatun Lake, formed as part of the Panama Canal.

   In 1851, Seacole traveled to Cruces to visit her brother, shortly after
   her arrival, Cruces was struck by cholera, a disease which had reached
   Panama in 1849. Seacole was on hand to treat the first victim, who
   survived, establishing Seacole's reputation and bringing her a
   succession of patients as the infection spread. While the rich paid she
   treated the poor for free. However many, both rich and poor, succumbed.
   She eschewed opium, preferring mustard rubs and poultices, purgative
   calomel ( mercuric chloride), sugars of lead ( lead(II) acetate), and
   rehydration with water boiled with cinnamon. While her preparations had
   moderate success, she faced little competition - the only other
   treatments coming from a "timid little dentist", an inexperienced
   doctor who was sent by the Panama government, and the Catholic church,
   which paraded images of saints and prayed for divine intervention.

   The epidemic raged through the population, Seacole later expressed
   exasperation at their feeble resistance, claiming they "bowed down
   before the plague in slavish despair". She performed an autopsy on an
   orphan child for whom she had cared, giving her "decidedly useful" new
   knowledge to put to good use. Towards the end of the epidemic, Seacole
   herself succumbed but survived. Cholera was to return again: Ulysses S.
   Grant passed through Cruces in July 1852 on military duty. 120 men, a
   third of his party, died of the disease there or shortly afterwards en
   route to Panama City.

   Despite the problems of disease and climate Panama remained the
   favoured route between the coasts of the United States. Seeing a
   business opportunity, Seacole opened a "British Hotel", although this
   was more of a restaurant than an hotel, she seems to have had a problem
   with her clientèle as it is recorded she struggled to keep the rowdy
   travelers under control.

   As the wet season ended in early 1852, Seacole joined other traders in
   Cruces in packing up to move to Gorgona. She records an American giving
   a speech at a leaving dinner in which he wished "God bless the best
   yaller woman he ever made" and asked the listeners to join with him in
   rejoicing that "she's so many shades removed from being entirely
   black”. He went on to say that "if we could bleach her by any means we
   would ... and thus make her acceptable in any company as she deserves
   to be." Seacole was incensed: in her reply, she said that she would
   have been just as happy to have a complexion "as dark as any nigger's",
   and wished for "the general reformation of American manners". Salih
   notes the use of a white American pidgin vernacular, contrasting with
   Seacole's clear English, as an inversion of renditions of "black"
   speech in contemporary literature, and as a claim of moral and
   intellectual superiority. Seacole also comments on the positions of
   responsibility taken on by escaped American slaves in Panama, in the
   priesthood, the army and public offices, commenting that "it is
   wonderful to see how freedom and equality elevate men". She also
   records an antipathy between the Panamanians and Americans, which she
   attributes in part to so many of the former once being slaves of the
   latter.

   In Gorgona Seacole established a women-only hotel and continued to
   treat the sick. In late 1852 she traveled home to Jamaica, the journey
   was delayed and difficult as she encountered racial prejudice when
   trying to book on to an American ship forcing her to wait for a later
   British boat Soon after arriving home, Seacole was asked by the
   Jamaican medical authorities to minister to victims of a severe
   outbreak of yellow fever in 1853. She went on to organise a nursing
   service for the hospital at Up-Park Camp, about a mile from Kingston,
   composed of fellow Afro-Caribbean "doctresses" who seemed to be largely
   immune to the disease.

   Seacole returned to Panama in early 1854 to finalise her business
   affairs, and three months later moved to the New Granada Mining Gold
   Company establishment at Fort Bowen Mine some 70 miles away near
   Escribanos to provide medical support. The superintendent, Thomas Day,
   was a relative of her late husband. Seacole had read newspaper reports
   of the outbreak of war against Russia before she left Jamaica, and news
   of the escalating Crimean War reached Seacole in Panama where she
   determined to travel to England to volunteer as a nurse, to experience
   the "pomp, pride and circumstance of glorious war" as she described it
   in Chapter I of her autobiography.

Crimean War, 1854-1856

   Sketch of Mary Seacole by Crimean war artist William Simpson
   (1823–1899). c.1855
   Sketch of Mary Seacole by Crimean war artist William Simpson
   (1823–1899). c.1855

   The Crimean War lasted from 1854 until 1 April 1856 and was fought
   between Imperial Russia on one side and an alliance of the United
   Kingdom, France, the Kingdom of Sardinia, and the Ottoman Empire on the
   other. The majority of the conflict took place on the Crimean peninsula
   in the Black Sea and Turkey.

   Thousands of troops from all the countries concerned were drafted to
   the area, disease broke out almost immediately, hundreds died of fever
   (mostly cholera), and hundreds more would die waiting to be shipped
   out, or on the voyage; and their prospects were little better when they
   arrived at the poorly-staffed, unsanitary and overcrowded hospital. In
   Britain a trenchant letter in The Times on 14 October triggered Sidney
   Herbert, Secretary of State for War, to approach Florence Nightingale
   to form a detachment of nurses to be sent to the hospital to save
   lives. Interviews were quickly held, suitable candidates selected, and
   Nightingale left for Turkey on 21 October.

   Seacole quickly traveled from Navy Bay to England, bringing letters of
   recommendation from doctors in Jamaica and Panama.. On arrival she
   approached the War Office, asking to be sent to Crimea as an army
   nurse, but failed to secure an interview. She was told to see the
   Quartermaster General, and then the Medical Department, but was
   rebuffed at each turn. Seacole was rightly concerned that the racial
   prejudices she had experienced at the hands of Americans could be
   taking root in Britain.. She began to realise that she would not be
   employed even if there were a vacancy. Records survive which indicate
   other black women suffered the same fate However, many other candidates
   too found they were unable to meet Nightingale's exacting standards,
   considered too drunk, too old, or lacking in the social graces.
   Undaunted, Seacole applied to the Crimean Fund, a fund raised by public
   subscription to support the wounded in Crimea, for sponsorship to
   travel to Crimea, but again she was met with refusal.

   Seacole finally resolved to travel to Crimea using her own resources,
   in order to open a "British Hotel". Business cards were printed and
   sent on to announce her imminent arrival and intention to open "a
   mess-table and comfortable quarters for sick and convalescent
   officers". Shortly afterwards, her Caribbean acquaintance, Thomas Day,
   arrived unexpectedly in London, and the two formed a partnership. They
   assembled a stock of supplies, and Seacole embarked on the Dutch
   screw-steamer Hollander on 27 January 1855 on its maiden voyage, to
   Constantinople. The ship called at Malta where Seacole encountered a
   doctor who had recently left Scutari, he wrote her a letter of
   introduction to Nightingale. On arriving in the Pera, the port of
   Constantinople, she took a caicque across the Bosphorus to visit
   Nightingales's hospital in Scutari where she encountered amongst the
   patients many familiar faces from the West Indies. At her meeting with
   Nightingale once again her offer of help was refused . After
   transferring most of her stores to the transport ship Albatross, with
   the remainder following on the Nonpareil, she set out on the four-day
   voyage to the British bridgehead into Crimea at Balaclava.
   Sketch of Mary Seacole's "British Hotel" in Crimea, by Lady Alicia
   Blackwood (1818–1913), a friend of Florence Nightingale who resided in
   the neighbouring "Zebra Vicarage".
   Sketch of Mary Seacole's "British Hotel" in Crimea, by Lady Alicia
   Blackwood (1818–1913), a friend of Florence Nightingale who resided in
   the neighbouring "Zebra Vicarage".

   Returning to Balaclava, lacking proper building materials, Seacole
   gathered abandoned metal and wood in her spare moments, with a view to
   using the debris to build her hotel. She found a site for the hotel at
   a place she christened Spring Hill, near Kadikoi, some 3½ miles along
   the main British supply road from Balaclava to the British camp near
   Sevastopol, and within a mile of the British headquarters.

   Hiring local labour the hotel was built from the salvaged driftwood,
   packing cases, and iron sheets, and salvaged architectural items —
   glass-doors and window-frames — from the village of Kamara. The new
   "British Hotel" opened in March 1855. An early visitor was Alexis
   Soyer, a noted French chef who had traveled to Crimea to help improve
   the diet of British soldiers. He recorded their meeting and describes
   Seacole as "an old dame of a jovial appearance, but a few shades darker
   than the white lily". The hotel was completed in July at a total cost
   of £800. It included a building made of iron, containing a main room
   with counters and shelves and storage above, an attached kitchen, two
   wooden sleeping huts, outhouses, and an enclosed stable yard. The
   building was stocked with provisions shipped from London and
   Constantinople, and local purchases from the British camp near Kadikoi
   and the French camp at nearby Kamiesch. Seacole sold anything "from a
   needle to an anchor" to army officers and visiting sight-seers. Meals
   were served at the Hotel, cooked by a black cook, the kitchen also
   provided outside catering. Many of Seacole's customers purchased goods
   on credit, causing problems later. Despite constant thefts,
   particularly of livestock, Seacole's establishment prospered. Opening
   five days a week and closing Sundays she settled into a routine of
   opening early, serving morning coffee to passing travelers, and then
   dealing with callers’ medical complaints, before traveling out herself
   to visit casualties..

   Florence Nightingale took against Seacole, although she did little to
   express her disapproval overtly. The British Hotel charged for its
   services, supplied alcohol, and was open to visiting tourists as well
   as soldiers, leading Nightingale to later accuse Seacole of running an
   establishment that was little better than a brothel. Some years later
   corresponding to her brother-in-law Sir Harry Verney in 1870 she wrote
   that Seacole "kept - I will not call it a 'bad house' - but something
   not very unlike it - in the Crimean War... She was very kind to the men
   &, what is more, to the Officers - & did some good - & made many
   drunk". Worse, a second letter went further, stating that Seacole was a
   "woman of bad character" who kept "a bad house" (meaning a brothel).
   Robinson considers this charge unfounded and based on Nightingale's
   belief in her social superiority. Indeed, Nightingale sent nurses to
   assist at the Land Transport Hospital, close by Seacole's Hotel's
   nursing establishment, and further letters record her efforts to avoid
   association between her nurses and Seacole However, a letter from John
   Hall, Inspector General of Hospitals, dated 30 June 1856, records his
   gratitude for Seacole's assistance at the hospital.

   Seacole often went out to the troops as a sutler, selling her wares
   near the British camp at Kadikoi, and attending to casualties brought
   out from the trenches around Sevastopol or from the Tchernaya valley.
   She was widely known to the British Army as "Mother Seacole".
   Seacole not only viewed the fighting from vantage points, but
   frequently put her own life at risk ministering to the wounded under
   fire
   Seacole not only viewed the fighting from vantage points, but
   frequently put her own life at risk ministering to the wounded under
   fire

   Seacole often visited Cathcart's Hill, some 3½ miles north of the
   British hotel and overlooking the valley of the Tchernaya to the east
   and the trenches leading up to Sevastopol a further 2 miles to the
   north, a vantage point to view the hostilities, on one occasion
   attending wounded troops under fire she dislocated her right thumb, an
   injury which never healed entirely., she often treated French,
   Sardinian and Russian casualties alike. In a dispatch written on 14
   September 1855, William Howard Russell, special correspondent of The
   Times wrote that she was a

                " a warm and successful physician, who doctors and cures
                all manner of men with extraordinary success. She is
                always in attendance near the battle-field to aid the
                wounded and has earned many a poor fellow's blessing."
                Russell also wrote that she "redeemed the name of sutler",
                and another that she was "both a Miss Nightingale and a
                Soyer". Seacole made a point of wearing brightly coloured,
                and highly conspicuous, clothing — often bright blue, or
                yellow, with ribbons in contrasting colours.

   While Lady Alicia Blackwood later recalled that Seacole had

                "...personally spared no pains and no exertion to visit
                the field of woe, and minister with her own hands such
                things as could comfort or alleviate the suffering of
                those around her; freely giving to such as could not
                pay...".

   In August Seacole was once again on Cathcart's Hill for the final
   assault on Sevastopol on Friday 7 September 1855. French troops led the
   storming, but the British were beaten back. By dawn on Sunday 9
   September, the city was burning out of control, and it was clear that
   it had fallen: the Russians retreated to fortifications to the north of
   the harbour. Later in the day Seacole fulfilled a bet, and became the
   first woman to enter Sevastopol after it fell. Having obtained a pass
   she toured the broken town bearing refreshments and visiting the
   crowded hospital by the docks, containing thousands of dead and dying
   Russians. Her foreign appearance led to her being stopped by French
   looters, but she was rescued by a passing officer. She liberated some
   items from the city, including a church bell, an altar candle, and a
   3-metre long painting of the Madonna.
   Florence Nightingale (above) was unimpressed by Mary Seacole's work in
   Crimea, and accused her of intoxicating soldiers and running a brothel
   Florence Nightingale (above) was unimpressed by Mary Seacole's work in
   Crimea, and accused her of intoxicating soldiers and running a brothel

   After the fall of Sevastopol, hostilities continued in a desultory
   fashion The business of Seacole and Day prospered in the interim
   period, with the soldiers taking the opportunity to enjoy themselves in
   the quieter days. There were theatrical performances and horse racing
   events for which Seacole provided catering.

   Seacole was joined by a young relative, a 14-year-old girl, Sarah, also
   known as Sally. Soyer described her as "the Egyptian beauty, Mrs
   Seacole's daughter Sarah", with blue eyes and dark hair. Nightingale
   alleged that Sarah was the illegitimate offspring of Seacole and
   Colonel Henry Bunbury. However, there is no evidence that Bunbury met
   Seacole, or even visited Jamaica, at a time when she would have been
   nursing her ailing husband. Ramdin speculates that Thomas Day could
   have been Sarah's father, pointing to the unlikely coincidences of
   their meeting in Panama and then in England, and their unusual business
   partnership in Crimea.

   Peace talks began in Paris in early 1856, and friendly relations opened
   between the Allies and the Russians, with a lively trade across the
   River Tchernaya. The Treaty of Paris was signed on 30 March 1856, after
   which the soldiers left Crimea. Seacole was in a difficult financial
   position, her Hotel was full of unsaleable provisions, new goods
   arriving daily, and creditors demanding payment. She attempted to sell
   as much as possible before the soldiers left, but she was forced to
   auction many expensive goods for knock-down prices to the Russians who
   were returning to their homes. The evacuation of the Allied armies was
   formally completed at Balaclava on 9 July 1856, with Seacole
   "...conspicuous in the foreground...dressed in a plaid
   riding-habit...". Seacole was one of the last to leave Crimea,
   returning to England "poorer than [she] left it".

Back in London, 1856-1860

   Seacole was bankrupt on her return to London. Queen Victoria's nephew
   Count Gleichen (above) had become a friend of Seacole's in Crimea. He
   supported fund-raising efforts on her behalf
   Seacole was bankrupt on her return to London. Queen Victoria's nephew
   Count Gleichen (above) had become a friend of Seacole's in Crimea. He
   supported fund-raising efforts on her behalf

   After the end of the war, Seacole returned to England destitute and in
   poor health. In the conclusion to her autobiography, she records that
   she "took the opportunity" to visit "yet other lands" on her return
   journey, although Robinson attributes this to her impecunious state
   requiring a roundabout trip. She arrived in August 1856, and considered
   setting up shop with Day in Aldershot, but nothing materialised. She
   attended a celebratory dinner for 2,000 soldiers at Royal Surrey
   Gardens in Kennington on 25 August 1856, at which Nightingale was chief
   guest of honour. Reports in The Times on 26 August and News of the
   World on 31 August indicate that Seacole was also fêted by the huge
   crowds, with two burly sergeants protecting her from the pressure of
   the crowd. However, creditors who had supplied her firm in Crimea were
   in pursuit. She closed the shop in Aldershot and moved to 1, Tavistock
   Street, Covent Garden and was made bankrupt. The Bankruptcy Court in
   Basinghall Street declared her bankrupt on 7 November 1856. Robinson
   speculates that Seacole's business problems may have been caused in
   part by her partner, Day, who dabbled in horse trading and may have set
   up as an unofficial bank, cashing IOUs.

   At about this time, Seacole began to wear military medals. These are
   mentioned in an account of her appearance in the bankruptcy court in
   November 1856. A bust by George Kelly, based on an original by Count
   Gleichen from around 1871, depicts her wearing four medals, three of
   which have been identified as the British Crimean Medal, the French
   Legion of Honour and the Turkish Order of the Medjidie medal. Robinson
   says that one is "apparently" a Sardinian award ( Sardinia having
   joined Britain and France in supporting Turkey against Russia in the
   war). The Jamaican Daily Gleaner stated in her obituary on 9 June 1881
   that she had also received a Russian medal, but it has not been
   identified. However, no formal notice of her award exists in the London
   Gazette, and it seems unlikely that Seacole was formally rewarded for
   her actions in Crimea: rather, she may have bought miniature or "dress"
   medals to display her support and affection for her "sons" in the Army.

   Seacole's plight was highlighted in the British press,. As a
   consequence a fund was set up with many prominent people donated money,
   and on 30 January 1857, she and Day were granted certificates
   discharging them from bankruptcy. Day left for the Antipodes to see new
   opportunities, but Seacole's funds remained low. She moved from
   Tavistock Street to cheaper lodgings in 14 Soho Square in early 1857,
   triggering a plea for subscriptions from Punch on 2 May.

   Further fund-raising kept Seacole to in the public eye. In May 1857 She
   wanted to travel to India, to minister to the wounded of the Indian
   Mutiny, but she was dissuaded by both the new Secretary of War, Lord
   Panmure, and her financial troubles. Fund-raising activities included
   the "Seacole Fund Grand Military Festival" which was held at the Royal
   Surrey Gardens, from Monday 27 July to Thursday 30 July 1857. This
   successful event was supported by many military men, including
   Major-General Lord Rokeby (who had commanded the 1st Division in
   Crimea) and Lord George Paget: over 1,000 artists performed, including
   eleven military bands and an orchestra conducted by Louis Jullien. The
   festival was attended by a crowd of 40,000 The one shilling entrance
   charge was quintupled for the first night, and halved for the Tuesday
   performance. However, production costs had been high and the Royal
   Surrey Gardens Company was itself having financial problems, and became
   insolvent immediately after the festival, as a result Seacole only
   received £57, one quarter of the profits from the event. When
   eventually the financial affairs of the ruined Company were resolved,
   in March 1858, the Indian Mutiny was over.

   A 200-page autobiographical account of her travels was published in
   July 1857 by James Blackwood as Wonderful Adventures of Mrs. Seacole in
   Many Lands, the first autobiography written by a black woman in Britain
   Priced at 1s 6d a copy the cover bears a striking portrait of Seacole
   in red, yellow and black ink. Robinson speculates that she dictated the
   work to an editor, identified in the book only as W.J.S., who improved
   her grammar and orthography. In the work Seacole deals with the first
   39 years of her life in one short chapter. She then expands six
   chapters on her few years in Panama, before using the following 12
   chapters to detail her exploits in Crimea. She avoids mention of the
   names of her parents and precise date of birth. A short final
   "Conclusion" deals with her return to England, and lists supporters of
   her fund-raising effort, including Rokeby, again, Prince Edward of
   Saxe-Weimar, the Duke of Wellington, the Duke of Newcastle, William
   Russell, and other prominent men in the military. The book was
   dedicated to Major-General Lord Rokeby, commander of the First
   Division; and William Howard Russell wrote as a preface "I have
   witnessed her devotion and her courage… and I trust that England will
   never forget one who has 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".

Later life, 1860-1881

   The only known photograph of Mary Seacole, taken for a carte de visite
   by Maull & Company in London in c.1873.
   The only known photograph of Mary Seacole, taken for a carte de visite
   by Maull & Company in London in c.1873.

   Seacole had joined the Roman Catholic church circa 1860, and returned
   to a Jamaica. politically changed in her absence. She became a
   prominent figure in the country. However, by 1867 she was again running
   short of money, and the Seacole fund was resurrected in London, with
   illustrious new patrons, including the Prince of Wales, the Duke of
   Edinburgh, the Duke of Cambridge, and many other senior military
   officers. The fund burgeoned, and Seacole was able to buy land on Duke
   Street in Kingston, near New Blundell Hall, where she built a bungalow
   as her new home plus a larger property to rent out.

   By 1870, Seacole was back in London, and Robinson speculates that she
   was drawn back by the prospect of rendering medical assistance in the
   Franco-Prussian War. It seems likely that she approached Sir Harry
   Verney (the husband of Florence Nightingale's sister Persephone) Member
   of Parliament for Buckingham who was closely involved in the British
   National Society for the Relief of the Sick and Wounded, the
   fore-runner of the Red Cross. It was at this time Nightingale wrote her
   letter to Verney insinuating that Seacole had kept a "bad house" in
   Crimea, and was responsible for "much drunkenness and improper
   conduct".

   In London, Seacole joined the periphery of the royal circle. Prince
   Count Gleichen, (a nephew of Queen Victoria, as young Lieutenant he had
   been one of her customers in Crimea) carved a marble bust of her in
   1871 which was exhibited at the Royal Academy summer exhibition in
   1872. Seacole also became personal masseuse to the Princess of Wales
   who suffered with white leg and rheumatism..

   Seacole died in 1881 at her home in Paddington, London the cause of
   death on her death was given as " apoplexy". She left estate valued at
   over £2,500. After some specific legacies, many of exactly 19 guineas,
   the main beneficiary of her will was her sister, Louisa. Lord Rokeby,
   Colonel Hussey Fane Keane, and Count Gleichen (three trustees of her
   Fund) were each left £50; Count Gleichen also received a diamond ring,
   said to have been given to Seacole’s late husband by Lord Nelson. A
   short obituary was published in The Times on 21 May 1881. She was
   buried in St. Mary's Roman Catholic Cemetery, Harrow Road, Kensal
   Green, London.

Recognition

   While well-known at the end of her life, Seacole rapidly faded from
   public memory. Her work in Crimea was overshadowed by Florence
   Nightingale's for many years. In recent years there has been a
   resurgence of interest in her and efforts to properly acknowledge her
   achievements. Seacole has become a symbol of racial attitudes and
   social injustices in Britain. Her story illustrates unceasing
   perseverance, courage and love in the face of prejudice. She was quoted
   as an example of "hidden" black history in Salman Rushdie's The Satanic
   Verses, like Olaudah Equiano: "See, here is Mary Seacole, who did as
   much in the Crimea as another magic-lamping lady, but, being dark,
   could scarce be seen for the flame of Florence's candle".

   She has been better remembered in the Caribbean, where she was
   posthumously awarded the Order of Merit of Jamaica in 1991. The
   headquarters of the Jamaican General Trained Nurses' Association was
   christened "Mary Seacole House" in 1954, followed quickly by the naming
   of a hall of residence of the University of the West Indies at Mona. A
   ward at Kingston Public Hospital was also named in her memory. Her
   grave was rediscovered in 1973; a service of reconsecration was held on
   20 November 1973, and her impressive gravestone was also restored by
   the British Commonwealth Nurses' War Memorial Fund and the Lignum Vitae
   Club. The centenary of her death was celebrated with a memorial service
   on 14 May 1981. An English Heritage blue plaque was erected by the
   Greater London Council at her residence in 157 George Street,
   Westminster, on 9 March 1985, but it was removed in 1998 before the
   site was redeveloped. A "green plaque" was unveiled at 147 George
   Street, in Westminster, on 11 October 2005. It has been proposed to
   re-position the blue plaque at another residence, in 14 Soho Square,
   where she lived in 1857.
   Seacole was posthumously awarded the Order of Merit of Jamaica in 1991.
   Seacole was posthumously awarded the Order of Merit of Jamaica in 1991.

   By the 2000s, Seacole was a figure appearing in the National
   Curriculum, with her life story taught at primary schools in the UK
   alongside Florence Nightingale. A campaign to erect a statue of Seacole
   in London was launched on 24 November 2003, chaired by MP Clive Soley
   (now Lord Soley of Hammersmith). She was voted into first place in an
   online poll of 100 Great Black Britons in 2004.

   An annual prize to recognise and develop leadership in nurses, midwives
   and health visitors in the NHS was named Seacole, and the Home Office
   commemorated her in early 2005 by naming part of its new headquarters
   at 2 Marsham Street in her honour New buildings at the University of
   Salford and University of Central England have also been named in her
   honour, and there is a Mary Seacole Centre for Nursing Practice at
   Thames Valley University and a Mary Seacole Research Centre at De
   Montfort University in Leicester.

   An exhibition to celebrate the bi-centenary of her birth opened at the
   Florence Nightingale museum in London in March 2005. Originally
   scheduled to last for a few months, the exhibition was so popular that
   it was extended to March 2007.

   The portrait identified as Seacole in 2005 was used for one of ten
   first-class stamps showing important Britons, to commemorate the 150th
   anniversary of the National Portrait Gallery.
   Retrieved from " http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Seacole"
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