Mary Seacole

Mary Seacole (18051–1881) was a famous war heroine of the Crimean War.

Her autobiography Wonderful Adventures of Mrs Seacole in Many Lands was a bestseller in 1857, yet she was almost forgotten until fairly recently. In 2004 she was voted the Greatest Black Briton.

Born in Jamaica as part of the free Creole population before the abolition of slavery in 1834, she certainly faced some racial prejudice during her life, but was proud of being British. At the time she would have been described as a quadroon (a quarter black) since her mother was a mulatto (half white, half black) and her father was a white Scottish officer. Her mother was a former slave who was self-employed as a doctress and Mary followed her mother’s profession. She married Edwin Seacole, an English officer posted to the British colony of Jamaica. Seacole was proud to be ‘A Creole with good Scotch blood coursing in my veins’.

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