Who is Mary Seacole? Google Doodle pays tribute to nurse voted greatest ever black Briton
MARY Seacole has been honoured by Google with a special Doodle, but who is she?
Google has honoured Mary Seacole with a special Doodle
Mary Seacole was a Jamaican-born nurse know for her heroic efforts caring for British soldiers during the Crimean War.
She was voted the greatest black Briton of all time in 2004.
Born in 1805 to a Scottish father and a Jamaican mother, she learned about herbal medicine from her mother at one of the best facilities in Kingston.
In 1854, Seacole travelled to England and asked to be sent to the Crimea as a British army nurse.
Seacole was a Jamaican-British nurse
After the War Office refused her request to volunteer, Seacole travelled to the Crimea at her own expense where she set up a hotel near Balaclava to care for wounded soldiers.
She also became friendly with Florence Nightingale, who was was sent by the Government to set up a unit of nurses.
A modern-day Florence Nightingale
Writing in her memoirs, Seacole looked back on her time in Balaclava with pride.
“The grateful words and smiles which rewarded me for binding up a wound or giving a cooling drink was a pleasure worth risking life for at any time,” she wrote.
She returned to England in 1956, destitute and in poor health. The British press highlighted her plight and a fundraising festival was organised, to which many donated.
Google designed this special Doodle
Seacole died in 1881 at her home in Paddington, London, and soon faded from public memory.
But by the turn of the 21st century her name was ressurrected with public buildings named after her and statues erected across he UK.
Today Google have honoured Seacole with a special Doodle. They said: “Here’s to Mary’s legacy as an empowered healer and humanitarian, which will continue to live on and inspire.”