Mary Jane Seacole née Grant, (born sometime during 1805) was a Jamaican woman of Scottish and Creole descent who set up a British Hotel (hospital) behind the lines during the Crimean War, which she described as a mess-table and comfortable quarters for sick and convalescent officers, and provided succour for wounded servicemen on the battlefield. She was posthumously awarded the Jamaican Order of Merit in 1991. In 2004 she was voted the greatest Black Briton. She eclipsed the work of Florence Nightingale and is considered by some to be the founder of modern nursing. Mary Janes exceptional free Black mother was the proprietor of a boarding house on East Street called Blundell Hall, where she hosted many British army and navy officers and their families and also treated their ailments - mainly tropical diseases - with herbal folk medicine, enjoying an impressive reputation as a doctoress. The bold, adventurous, intellectually curious, fast-learning Mary Jane Grant swiftly acquired her mothers health-care skills and entrepreneurial zeal. In 1836, she married Edwin Horatio Seacole, an English businessman and godson of the British naval hero, Admiral (Lord) Horatio Nelson. The marriage did not last long, however, as her husband soon died, followed shortly by her mother. STERLING ANTI-CHOLERA WORK Mary Seacole took over Blundell Hall and very substantially expanded it. She earned sterling credentials for her work in combating the cholera epidemic that ravaged Jamaica in 1850. Soon after, she travelled to Central America in search of her eldorado and spent three years in Panama while the railway system was being developed there. A voracious reader, she learnt about the Crimean War, which broke out in 1854 on the Crimean peninsula, the part of Russia jutting into the Black Sea. The war pitted Russia against France, Turkey, Sardinia and Britain. One of the British regiments involved was previously stationed in Jamaica, where Seacole was its caterer. News reached Jamaica that tropical diseases - including cholera, yellow fever, malaria and dysentery - that she had successfully treated in Jamaica and Panama were inflicting a heavy toll on the lives and health of the troops in Crimea. Seacole set sail for Britain and offered the War Office her services as a nurse. The Lady with the Lamp, Florence Nightingale, was then recruiting a team of nurses to serve the troops but, in an age when racial segregation was the norm, not surprisingly there was no space for Seacole in Florence Nightingales team. CRIMEAN WAR Consistent with her character, Seacole would not be denied involvement in the war. She packed her bags and headed for the battlefield in a convoy of three mules, one on which she sat, while the second carried her self-concocted herbal medicines and, the third, baskets of food and drink for the forces. She moved around with the combatants as the battleground shifted from one spot to another, feeding the men and dispensing her medicine, collecting pay where she could and nonetheless doling out the goodies to those unable to pay, treating friend and foe alike. Seacole became an international figure, as newspapers constantly reported her activities. In 1857, the year after the Crimean War ended, her autobiographical Wonderful Adventures of Mrs Seacole in Many Lands was published in Britain. As well as conveying much interesting and useful information, the bestselling book reflected an intellectual depth that would have surprised those who judged human worth by skin colour in addition to harbouring bigoted notions related to race. By the 1870s, the once rejected coloured nurse from Jamaica was befriended by Britains social elite, including members of the royal family. She also paid several visits to the land of her birth in that decade. EXEMPLARY HEALTH PROFESSIONAL She died in Britain in 1881, having lived up to the best traditions of health professionals, rendering the best service of which she was capable without regard to the recipients ability to pay, treating every life as precious and demonstrating courage of heroic proportions. The Institute of Jamaica, established in 1879, acquired her home, the adjacent Blundell Hall, to house one of its components, the West India Reference Library, now the National Library of Jamaica. Mary Seacole was arguably the first in a long line of superbly gifted Jamaicans who have earned worldwide respect for our nation through their excellent standards of performance, their behaviour and their values and attitudes.n 1805, more than a generation before the abolition of slavery in the British empire, a remarkably unique and outstanding life began in Kingston, Jamaica, when a free black woman who had mated with a Scottish army officer gave birth to a daughter whom she named Mary Jane Grant. Mary Janes exceptional free black mother was the proprietor of a boarding house on East Street called Blundell Hall, where she hosted many British army and navy officers and their families and also treated their ailments - mainly tropical diseases - with herbal folk medicine, enjoying an impressive reputation as a doctoress. The bold, adventurous, intellectually curious, fast-learning Mary Jane Grant swiftly acquired her mothers health-care skills and entrepreneurial zeal. In 1836, she married Edwin Horatio Seacole, an English businessman and godson of the British naval hero, Admiral (Lord) Horatio Nelson. The marriage did not last long, however, as her husband soon died, followed shortly by her mother. STERLING ANTI-CHOLERA WORK Mary Seacole took over Blundell Hall and very substantially expanded it. She earned sterling credentials for her work in combating the cholera epidemic that ravaged Jamaica in 1850. Soon after, she travelled to Central America in search of her eldorado and spent three years in Panama while the railway system was being developed there. A voracious reader, she learnt about the Crimean War, which broke out in 1854 on the Crimean peninsula, the part of Russia jutting into the Black Sea. The war pitted Russia against France, Turkey, Sardinia and Britain. One of the British regiments involved was previously stationed in Jamaica, where Seacole was its caterer. News reached Jamaica that tropical diseases - including cholera, yellow fever, malaria and dysentery - that she had successfully treated in Jamaica and Panama were inflicting a heavy toll on the lives and health of the troops in Crimea. Seacole set sail for Britain and offered the War Office her services as a nurse. The Lady with the Lamp, Florence Nightingale, was then recruiting a team of nurses to serve the troops but, in an age when racial segregation was the norm, not surprisingly there was no space for Seacole in Florence Nightingales team. CRIMEAN WAR Consistent with her character, Seacole would not be denied involvement in the war. She packed her bags and headed for the battlefield in a convoy of three mules, one on which she sat, while the second carried her self-concocted herbal medicines and, the third, baskets of food and drink for the forces. She moved around with the combatants as the battleground shifted from one spot to another, feeding the men and dispensing her medicine, collecting pay where she could and nonetheless doling out the goodies to those unable to pay, treating friend and foe alike. Seacole became an international figure, as newspapers constantly reported her activities. In 1857, the year after the Crimean War ended, her autobiographical Wonderful Adventures of Mrs Seacole in Many Lands was published in Britain. As well as conveying much interesting and useful information, the bestselling book reflected an intellectual depth that would have surprised those who judged human worth by skin colour in addition to harbouring bigoted notions related to race. By the 1870s, the once rejected coloured nurse from Jamaica was befriended by Britains social elite, including members of the royal family. She also paid several visits to the land of her birth in that decade. The Crimean War lasted from October 1853 until 1 April 1856 and was fought between the Russian Empire and an alliance of the United Kingdom, France, the Kingdom of Sardinia, and the Ottoman Empire. The majority of the conflict took place on the Crimean peninsula in the Black Sea and Turkey. Many thousands of troops from all the countries involved were drafted to the area, and disease broke out almost immediately. Hundreds perished, mostly from cholera. Hundreds more would die waiting to be shipped out, or on the voyage. Their prospects were little better when they arrived at the poorly staffed, unsanitary and overcrowded hospitals which were the only medical provision for the wounded. In Britain, a trenchant letter in The Times on 14 October triggered Sidney Herbert, Secretary of State for War, to approach Florence Nightingale to form a detachment of nurses to be sent to the hospital to save lives. Interviews were quickly held, suitable candidates selected, and Nightingale left for Turkey on 21 October. Seacole travelled from Navy Bay in Panama to England, initially to deal with her investments in gold-mining businesses. She then attempted to join the second contingent of nurses to the Crimea. She applied to the War Office and other government offices, but arrangements for departure were already underway. In her memoir, she wrote that she brought ample testimony of her experience in nursing, but the only example officially cited was that of a former medical officer of the West Granada Gold-Mining Company. She also applied to the Crimean Fund, a fund raised by public subscription to support the wounded in Crimea, for sponsorship to travel there, but she again met with refusal. Seacole finally resolved to travel to Crimea using her own resources and to open the British Hotel. Business cards were printed and sent ahead to announce her intention to open an establishment, to be called the British Hotel, near Balaclava, which would be a mess-table and comfortable quarters for sick and convalescent officers. Shortly afterwards, her Caribbean acquaintance, Thomas Day, arrived unexpectedly in London, and the two formed a partnership. They assembled a stock of supplies, and Seacole embarked on the Dutch screw-steamer Hollander on 27 January 1855 on its maiden voyage, to Constantinople. The ship called at Malta, where Seacole encountered a doctor who had recently left Scutari. He wrote her a letter of introduction to Nightingale. Seacole visited Nightingale at the Barrack Hospital in Scutari, where she asked for a bed for the night, because she intended to travel to Balaclava the next day to join her business partner. In her memoirs, she reported that her meeting with Nightingale was friendly, with Nightingale asking What do you want, Mrs. Seacole? Anything we can do for you? If it lies in my power, I shall be very happy. Seacole told her of her dread of the night journey by caique and the improbability of being able to find the Hollander in the dark. A bed was then found for her and breakfast sent her in the morning, with a kind message from Mrs. Bracebridge, Nightingales helper. A footnote in the memoir states that Seacole subsequently saw much of Miss Nightingale at Balaclava, but no further meetings are recorded in the text. EXEMPLARY HEALTH PROFESSIONAL She died in Britain in 1881, having lived up to the best traditions of health professionals, rendering the best service of which she was capable without regard to the recipients ability to pay, treating every life as precious and demonstrating courage of heroic proportions. The Institute of Jamaica, established in 1879, acquired her home, the adjacent Blundell Hall, to house one of its components, the West India Reference Library, now the National Library of Jamaica. Mary Seacole was arguably the first in a long line of superbly gifted Jamaicans who have earned worldwide respect for our nation through their excellent standards of performance, their behaviour and their values and attitudes. Source: Jamaican Gleaner, Wikipedia
Posted on: Thu, 27 Nov 2014 23:31:17 +0000
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