Mary seacole biography british hotel handicap
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Frontiers | Science News
Mary Seacole in
Mary Seacole was a Jamaican woman of mixed race who excelled as a nurse, businesswoman and a traveler in the 19th century. Her work and reputation rivaled that of Florence Nightingale’s. During her time she defied social expectations and prejudices. Due to the racial and gender discrimination that she faced; her legacy has faded to obscurity after her death – until now.
By Aimee Lee
Early Life
In , Mary Seacole was born in Kingston, Jamaica to a Scottish father and Jamaican mother. Her father was a Lieutenant in the British Army and her mother a traditional healer. It was from her mother Mary picked up her nursing and healing skills.
Mary’s mother, Mrs. Grant, ran a boarding house called Blundell Hall in Kingston, which was also a convalescent home for military dock recovering from illnesses. At the tender age of 12, Mary was already helping her mother “The Doctoress” treat sick and injured soldiers. Despite not having any formal
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by Lynn McDonald
It depends on the sources used: primary sources from the time are of a Jamaican businesswoman, independent, feisty, kind and generous, but not at all the &#;battlefield nurse, &#;pioneer nurse&#; or &#;first nurse practitioner&#; shown wearing medals awarded to her for her bravery.
There are solid, contemporary primary sources:
- Seacole&#;s own memoir, Wonderful Adventures of Mrs Seacole in Many Lands, , much reprinted
- newspaper accounts (especially the Times)
- letters and memoirs published by army officers and doctors post-war
- her will.
However, there is no independent corroboration of her activities pre-Crimea, either in Jamaica or Panama.
The chief myths
- volunteered as a nurse for the Crimean War, rejected ( times), rejected specifically by Nightingale ( times)
- Crimean War nurse, built a hotel, or clinic (or hotel with a clinic on top) to nurse soldiers (frequent mentions)
- more &#;hands on&#; experience than Nightingale (&#;the young novice nurs
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Mother Seacole: How Mary Seacole Shaped Nursing
Updated on September 27,
Mary Seacole was an opinionated, deeply compassionate nursing pioneer whose actions in peace and wartime left an enduring impression on the profession.
Mary Grant Seacole, known as “Mother Seacole” by her patients, was a contemporary of Florence Nightingale. Yet, while Nightingale’s name rings through the halls of nearly every nursing program, Seacole was all but forgotten until , when historians rediscovered her story. Now called the “Greatest Black Briton,” her statue outside St. Thomas Hospital in London is the first to honor a Black woman in the U.K.
On this page, we explore the early years of Seacole’s life that influenced her pursuit of healthcare and business. As she matured, she created a unique blend of her two interests, which ultimately served her patients in Panama, Crimea, and Jamaica.
The Early Life of Mary Seacole
Mary Seacole was born Mary Jane Grant in Jamaica. At the ti