Specialist Nursing Subject - Mary Seacole Memorial Appeal

[Marmora Man]

Lord Soley is chairman of an appeal to raise funds to erect a 3 metre high, floodlit statue to Mary Seacole to be sited on St Thomas; Hospital grounds, a hospital that has no links whatsoever with Mary Seacole but many with the founder of modern nursing - Florence Nightingale. See Mary Seacole.

As someone with links to healthcare and a strong knowledge of the role and input of Florence Nightingale to nursing and the Nightingale School of Nursing at St Thomas' Hospital I feel that while the cause is laudable the site for the statue is wrong and seek others views on the matter.

Over the last few decades there have rightly been moves to highlight and celebrate the contribution of black people to world history. The Appeal?s website describes Mary Seacole?s life in very positive terms, which is understandable. However, the sponsors have succumbed to a degree of historical romance and mythmaking that diminishes the role of Florence Nightingale and her link with St Thomas? Hospital. Mark Bostridge, biographer of both Florence Nightingale and Mary Seacole, has stated ?the false comparisons between Seacole and Nightingale [ ? ] do not belong to the realm of serious history?.

A memorial to Mary Seacole should not detract from Florence Nightingale?s real and evidenced contribution to nursing. St Thomas? hospital is where Florence Nightingale worked to develop nursing and its design was greatly influenced by her thinking and input. The Nightingale School of Nursing at St Thomas? Hospital that Florence Nightingale founded led the training of professional nurses for over 140 years and sent nursing leaders throughout the world to cascade the Nightingale approach and discipline.

Mary Seacole is seen as an inspiring historical figure and is today, significant in Black History iconography. She can be seen as an example of care and compassion and someone whose achievements were perhaps marginalised by some historians. She did support British troops during the Crimean War and also provided care and hospitality in the Caribbean, the US and Panama by provision of a hotel and sutler service. However, although she spent her last years in Britain she made no contribution to the development, philosophy and training of nurses in UK; to associate Mary Seacole with the development of nursing is to perpetuate a myth. Some errors in the Appeal website include:

➢ That due to racism the ?authorities? in Britain, and by extension Florence Nightingale, rejected her offer of help nurse the sick and wounded of the Crimean War. We should not foist today?s mores on yesterday?s actions. Mary Seacole met Florence Nightingale once, briefly, in or near Scutari; Mary Seacole?s own memoirs record the meeting as amicable and describe Florence Nightingale as ?that Englishwoman whose name shall never die, but sound like music on the lips of men until the end of doom?. Florence Nightingale acknowledged Mary Seacole?s good work by contributing to a Testimonial Fund when Mary Seacole faced bankruptcy in 1857.

➢ That at the British Hotel in the Crimea, ?she provided soldiers with accommodation, food and nursing care.? In fact Mary Seacole was a sutler, or supplier of goods. The British Hotel was largely a restaurant for officers, an outlet for fine wines, with a cheaper canteen for soldiers. It was not a dedicated hospital and did not provide nursing services. Mary Seacole was generous and compassionate, she provided herbal remedies to sick soldiers and visited the battlefields to assist the wounded, all of which she deserves credit for, but this is not what the Appeal is saying.

➢ That Mary Seacole ?received four medals including the Crimean Medal and the L?gion d?Honneur?. There is no evidence for this and today it is thought she simply purchased dress copies of these medals ? there is certainly no evidence in the medal records or the London Gazette. Jane Robinson, a Mary Seacole biographer, pointed out that army general?s letters from which Mary Seacole quoted, attesting to the importance of her work, lacked ?corresponding copies in their authors? papers,? and were ?inadmissible? as evidence.

➢ Mary Seacole was a herbalist; not a nurse in the normal sense of the term and it is not clear that she ever did regular nursing work. In Jamaica she worked in her family?s business, nursing only short-term during epidemics. Mary Seacole did not nurse after the Crimean war, or ever nurse in UK at any time. She did not train nurses, start a nursing school, write books & articles on nursing, mentor nurses, or any of the things that Nightingale did all her working life post-Crimea.

The Appeal identifies Mary Seacole?s triumph as the over coming of racism and states:

?We feel that it is time she is commemorated [?.. ] by a statue, the first of its kind to a named black woman in the United Kingdom. We believe that it will acknowledge the important role played by ethnic minorities in British history and the success of our multi-cultural society. ??.. we want to celebrate a woman who succeeded against all the odds?.

Almost anywhere but St Thomas;' Hospital would be a good site - anywhere along the Thames side would work, outside Richmond House in Whitehall perhaps or, if suitably scaled, alongside the Guards Crimean Memorial in Waterloo Place. She lived in Soho Square and in George Street, Westminster, so maybe these areas would be appropriate? There is a Mary Seacole link with Kennington where she attended a celebratory dinner for 2,000 soldiers in 1856, so perhaps Kennington Park that has long associations with popular causes and demonstrations would also be suitable. I am sure other more appropriate sites must also be available.

Your views welcome.

[edhistory]

I think you are spitting into the wind with this no matter how much evidence you provide.

I believe that in the last 20 years every child in an East Dulwich primary or secondary school has had at least one lesson about Seacole very much on the lines of the Seacole web-site you referenced.

When it was my daughter's turn I explained that Seacole ran a precursor of the NAAFI for profit. I produced supporting evidence. But teacher was right.

Get 'em young.

John K