Mary Seacole

I would like to introduce you to a valiant lady from Jamaica.  Her knowledge of medicinal herbs and nursing was introduced to her by her mother. She became well known for her nursing (she was called doctress in Jamaica) capabilities and in 1854 traveled to the Crimea to offer her services to Florence Nightingale.  Though her father had been a Scottish Army officer her mother was of African heritage and since Mary was called a Creole she was turned down as one of Nightingale’s own.

  However, Seacole had a head for business and a heart for caring. She opened the British Hotel and wounded soldiers sought her out as did many of the colorful local characters.  With the help of an English journalist name Russell she published a book about her exploits and the rest is history.

          I accompanied them on horseback...English and French cavalry preceded the Turkish infantry over the plain yet full of memorials of the terrible Light Cavalry charge a few months before [Do you remember reading Tennyson’s “The Charge of the Light Brigade”?]

“…One thought never left my mind as I walked through the fearful miles of suffering in that great hospital…on the spot where poor fellows is stricken down by pestilence or Russian bullets…”