Name: Mary Seacole
Dates: 1805-1881
Place of Birth: West Indies
Unit: Civilian supplier of food/medical care to British Expeditionary Force
Deployment: Crimean Peninsula, Russia, Crimean War (1854-1856)
Medals/Awards: Crimea Medal, Turkish Order of the Mejidie, French Legion of Honour
I learned medicine from my mother and nursed thousands through the cholera and yellow fever epidemics. When Britain declared war on Russia her army was ravaged by cholera and in the fighting that followed four out of five men would die not in battle but of disease. The public outcry was fierce. A group of women made history by going out, with official sanction, to nurse the sick. I went too. I set up a hotel two miles from the battlefield and treated the ill - those who could pay, and those who could not. In the aftermath of battle I took medicines and water to those lying wounded on the field. To the troops I was not the Lady with the Lamp - I, "being dark, could scarce be seen for the flame of Florence's candle". I was Mother Seacole.
The Crimean War bankrupted Mary Seacole, but the British soldiers she had cared for donated money to rescue her from destitution, and she was much loved in her lifetime. She was voted top of the Great Black Britons Poll in 2004.
