Subject
Mary Seacole (née Grant, 1805–1881) was born in Jamaica to a Scottish father and a Jamaican mother. Following her mother as a "doctress" practising traditional herbal medicine, and as a hotel keeper, Seacole established a mess, the "British Hotel", at Balaklava during the Crimean War. [1] Travelling to the Crimea independently after her attempts to join the official nursing contingent led by Florence Nightingale were unsuccessful, Seacole set up the hotel as a recreational and convalescence facility for officers and men and was referred to as "Mother Seacole" by the soldiery. [2] Returning to England in 1856, she published an autobiography, Wonderful Adventures of Mrs. Seacole in Many Lands, the following year. [3] Falling into poverty, Seacole benefited from fundraising efforts supported by a number of illustrious backers, including the war correspondent of The Times , William Howard Russell.
After her death in 1881, Seacole largely disappeared from the public consciousness. [4] The centenary of her death saw the beginnings of a revival of interest; the Mary Seacole Memorial Association was founded in 1980, and an English Heritage blue plaque commemorated her residence in George Street, Westminster. In 2004 Seacole was voted first in a poll of 100 "Great Black Britons", and the president of the Royal College of Nursing called for the erection of a statue to honour her memory. [5] Over a decade later, and following considerable controversy, the statue in the gardens of St Thomas' Hospital was unveiled by Floella Benjamin on 30 June 2016.
Description
The statue stands in the gardens of St Thomas' Hospital, facing the Palace of Westminster. [3] The figure of Seacole is cast in bronze and the sculptor Martin Jennings depicted Seacole in motion to represent her "marching defiantly forward into an oncoming wind, as if confronting head-on some of the personal resistance she had constantly to battle". The sculpture stands on a plinth of Cumbrian slate with Portland stone dressings. Seacole stands in front of a disc, again cast in bronze although with a lighter patina to accentuate contrasts and shadows, which shows the land surface where Seacole established her "British Hotel" in the Crimea. Jennings intended the disc to have both literal significance, as a depiction of the place where her reputation was first established, and symbolic meaning, as a block to her ambitions. [6]
The plinth carries two inscriptions. To the front is carved Seacole's name, occupation and dates, together with words from her autobiography; "Wherever the need arises on whatever distant shore I ask no higher or greater privilege than to minister to it". The reverse describes the meaning and purpose of the disc, and carries words by William Howard Russell, the newspaper correspondent who covered the Crimean War, and Seacole's contribution; "I trust that England will not forget one who nursed her sick, who sought out her wounded to aid and succour them, and who performed the last offices for some of her illustrious dead". [7] In 2017 the sculpture was shortlisted for the Marsh Awards, [8] established by the Public Monuments and Sculpture Association to raise awareness of Britain's monument heritage. [9] Seacole's statue is generally considered to be the first in Britain to recognise a named black woman. [lower-alpha 1] [lower-alpha 2] [13] [14] [15] [16] [17]
History
The idea for a statue to commemorate Seacole was raised in 2004, when she topped an online poll to identify 100 Great Black Britons. [18] Her victory led the then President of the Royal College of Nursing, Sylvia Denton, to call for the erection of a commemorative statue. [19] The idea was supported by the London M.P. Clive Soley, who had become interested in Seacole when a group of black women from his constituency, who had served in the Women's Royal Voluntary Service, approached him for help in identifying and refurbishing Seacole's grave in St Mary's Catholic Cemetery, Kensal Green in West London. [20] [21] Soley subsequently became chair of the Mary Seacole Memorial Statue Appeal which undertook a twelve-year campaign to raise the necessary funds to pay for the statue. Over £500,000 was raised in private donations, and this was supplemented by the granting of £240,000 by the then Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne, who diverted fines levied following the Libor banking scandal for the purpose of landscaping and preparing the statue's site. [22]
The commissioning of the statue generated controversy. Opposition was led by the Nightingale Society, [23] and its co-founder Lynn McDonald, the editor of the 16-volume Collected Works of Florence Nightingale. [24] [16] [25] [26] The society's main objection was to what it perceived as the embellishment of Seacole's work and reputation, to the detriment of that of Florence Nightingale. [26] The proposed site for the statue, the grounds of St Thomas', provoked particular hostility, as Seacole had no connection to the hospital while Nightingale had founded her school of nursing there in 1860. [27] [28] [29] In 2013 the controversy became linked to, ultimately unsuccessful, efforts by the then Secretary of State for Education, Michael Gove, to remove mention of Seacole from the English schools National Curriculum. [30] [31] [32] The statue's sculptor, Martin Jennings, noted the substantial length of time it took to raise the necessary funds, contrasting it with the more usual period of around two years, and asked, in an interview in The Guardian newspaper in 2016, "would there really be such energy behind the[..] resistance if the person the statue honours was white-skinned"? [14]
By 2016, work on the statue, cast in the foundry of Pangolin Editions in Gloucestershire, and on its site, was complete. The statue was unveiled on 30 June 2016 by Floella Benjamin. Speaking at the unveiling, Elizabeth Anionwu, Emeritus Professor of Nursing at the University of West London and vice-chair of the appeal committee, referenced the importance of the site and of the statue itself; "There are not enough statues of women, let alone of black women. St Thomas’ are proud to host the statue of Mary Seacole both in recognition of the work done by their black and minority ethnic healthcare staff, and also because of the diverse community they serve". [33] [34]
Florence Nightingale was an English social reformer, statistician and the founder of modern nursing. Nightingale came to prominence while serving as a manager and trainer of nurses during the Crimean War, in which she organised care for wounded soldiers at Constantinople. She significantly reduced death rates by improving hygiene and living standards. Nightingale gave nursing a favourable reputation and became an icon of Victorian culture, especially in the persona of "The Lady with the Lamp" making rounds of wounded soldiers at night.
St Thomas' Hospital is a large NHS teaching hospital in Central London, England. It is one of the institutions that compose the King's Health Partners, an academic health science centre. Administratively part of the Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust, together with Guy's Hospital, King's College Hospital, University Hospital Lewisham, and Queen Elizabeth Hospital, it provides the location of the King's College London GKT School of Medical Education.
Clive Stafford Soley, Baron Soley is a Labour Party politician in the United Kingdom. He served as a Member of Parliament (MP) from 1979 to 2005, and later as a Member of the House of Lords until 2023.
Mary Jane Seacole was a British nurse and businesswoman.
The Florence Nightingale Museum is located at St Thomas' Hospital, which faces the Palace of Westminster across the River Thames in South Bank, central London, England. It is open to the public five days a week, Wednesday to Sunday 10:00am until 5:00pm.
The Florence Nightingale Faculty of Nursing, Midwifery & Palliative Care is an academic faculty within King's College London. The faculty is the world's first nursing school to be continuously connected to a fully serving hospital and medical school. Established on 9 July 1860 by Florence Nightingale, the founder of modern nursing, it was a model for many similar training schools through the UK, Commonwealth and other countries for the latter half of the 19th century. It is primarily concerned with the education of people to become nurses and midwives. It also carries out nursing research, continuing professional development and postgraduate programmes. The Faculty forms part of the Waterloo campus on the South Bank of the River Thames and is now one of the largest faculties in the university.
Mark Bostridge is a British writer and critic, known for his historical biographies.
Dame Elizabeth Nneka Anionwu is a British nurse, health care administrator, lecturer, and Emeritus Professor of Nursing at the University of West London.
Dame Alicia Frances Jane Lloyd Still, was a British nurse, teacher, hospital matron and leader of her profession. She was one of the leaders in the campaign for state registration of nurses. Following the Nurses Registration Act 1919, she was a member of the General Nursing Council (1920-1937). As chairwoman of the General Nursing Council's first Education and Examinations Committee she helped establish the first national examination standards for the registration of nurses.
Sir John Hall KCB was a British military surgeon.
Martin Jennings, FRSS is a British sculptor who works in the figurative tradition, in bronze and stone. His statue of John Betjeman at St Pancras railway station was unveiled in 2007 and the statue of Philip Larkin at Hull Paragon Interchange station was presented in 2010. His statue of Mary Seacole (2016), one of his largest works, stands in the grounds of St Thomas' Hospital in central London, looking over the Thames towards the Houses of Parliament.
Sarah Elizabeth Wardroper was an English nurse who was matron of St Thomas' Hospital, London, and the first superintendent of the Nightingale School of Nursing at that hospital.
Chief Kofoworola Abeni Pratt Hon. FRCN was a Nigerian nurse who was one of the first notable black nurses to work in Britain's National Health Service. She subsequently became vice-president of the International Council of Nurses and the first black Chief Nursing Officer of Nigeria, working in the Federal Ministry of Health.
Mother Mary Clare Moore was an Irish Sister of Mercy, a Crimean War nurse and a teacher. She was one of the ten original members of the Sisters of Mercy, and was the founding sister superior of the order's first convent in England at Bermondsey.
Mother Mary Francis Bridgeman R.S.M. was a nun with the Sisters of Mercy, a Roman Catholic religious congregation of women, founded in Ireland by Catherine McAuley and a pioneer nurse during the Crimean War of 1854-1856.
100 Great Black Britons is a poll that was first undertaken in 2003 to vote for and celebrate the greatest Black Britons of all time. It was created in a campaign initiated by Patrick Vernon in response to a BBC search for 100 Greatest Britons, together with a television series (2002), which featured no Black Britons in the published listing. The result of Vernon's campaign was that in February 2004 Mary Seacole was announced as having been voted the greatest Black Briton. Following the original poll, 100 Great Black Britons was re-launched in 2020 in an updated version based on public voting, together with a book of the same title.
Eliza Roberts (1802–1878) was an English nurse who was among the first group of nurses to accompany Florence Nightingale to Scutari Hospital during the Crimean War. Nightingale regarded her as the best of her nurses and appointed her Head Nurse.
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