Mary Seacole

Mary Seacole was born in the British colony of Jamaica to a Scottish father and Jamaican mother in 1805. Mary learned nursing and healing from her mother who kept a boarding house for wounded soldiers.
In 1853 a war began along the Crimean Peninsula in Eastern Europe. It was a conflict between the Russian Empire and the allied British, French and Ottoman Empires. Mary travelled to the Crimean Peninsula with a friend and set up a hotel and boarding house – the British Hotel – behind enemy lines. Mary provided hot food, drinks and clothes for wounded soldiers. Mary also nursed soldiers on the battlefield as well as in the British Hotel. In 1857 she released Wonderful Adventures of Mrs Seacole in Many Lands. Mary Seacole passed away in 1881. On 30 June 2016 a stature of her was unveiled at St Thomas’s Hospital in London, honouring her as a pioneer in her field.