Mary Seacole

I have been passing this portrait of Mary Seacole every day this week when visiting my daughter in St Peter’s Hospital. Mary Seacole was born in Jamaica in 1805. Her father was a Scottish army officer and her mother was Jamaican. Her mother practised African and  Caribbean remedies which inspired Mary to pursue a nursing career. She used her own resources to travel to Crimea where she set up a facility to care for wounded British soldiers. She got to know Florence Nightingale who, of course, is far better known both for her work in the Crimean War and in developing the profession of nursing. Mary Seacole's important contribution has become more known, and celebrated, in recent years. She died in 1881. A statue of her can be seen at St Thomas' Hospital overlooking the Palace of Westminster in London. Meanwhile I'm pleased to say that my daughter is on the mend from what has now been diagnosed as glandular fever but she will need to take it easy in the weeks to come as she recuperates.