Science, Medicine & Engineering
Landmark
Mary Seacole
1805 – 1881
The nurse and businesswoman of the Crimean War
Landmark is level 2 of 4 in the Jamaica Hall of Fame: a first that opened a door, or the pre-eminent figure of their generation in this country. See how the levels work.
Why they are here
A Kingston-born healer who travelled to the Crimean War at her own expense and nursed British soldiers near the front line.
Having learned Creole medicine from her mother, Seacole treated cholera and yellow fever in Jamaica and Panama. Turned down by the official nursing service, she set up the 'British Hotel' near Balaclava in the 1850s, where she sold provisions and cared for the sick and wounded. Her autobiography, Wonderful Adventures of Mrs Seacole in Many Lands (1857), was a bestseller.
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