October is Black History Month, so every day during October I will be posting up an introduction to an historical person of colour with a place in the history of the United Kingdom.

Mary Seacole, born in Jamaica in 1805, was the daughter of a Scottish army lieutenant and a free Jamaican woman. She was a nurse, healer, and businesswoman who nursed wounded servicemen on the battlefield during the Crimean War.

Mary Seacole had no formal British nursing qualifications or training, but had a family background as a healer and ‘doctress’ from Jamaica. Refused by the War Office as part of its nursing contingent, she travelled independently to the battlefront to nurse wounded soldiers.

Mary’s autobiography, Wonderful Adventures of Mrs. Seacole in Many Lands, is one of the earliest autobiographies of a mixed-race woman. There is a statue of Mary Seacole at St Thomas’ Hospital in London.

More about Mary Seacole at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Seacole