Mary Seacole Biography

Mary Seacole was a Jamaican-born nurse who became a heroine of the Crimean War. She was a mixed-race nurse who cared for British soldiers at the battlefront during the Crimean War by setting up a “British Hotel” where she provided assistance and relief to servicemen wounded on the battlefield. Born as the daughter of a Scottish soldier in the British Army and a free Jamaican woman, Mary acquired knowledge of herbal medicines from her mother who was skilled in traditional medicines. She also inherited her mother’s compassion and started helping her in caring for invalids at their boarding house while she was still a young girl. She grew up to be an independent minded woman and travelled independently to several places, including London. On one of her travels she learned that there was a lack of proper nursing care for soldiers in the Crimean War. She applied to the War Office and asked to be sent as an army nurse to the Crimea but was refused. Deciding to take things into her own hands, she travelled on her own to the Crimea where she established the British Hotel to provide food, medicines and other necessities to the soldiers. She returned to England after the end of the war and was hailed as a heroine for her role in easing the sufferings of the wounded and ailing soldiers.