Magazine – Mary Seacole
Introduction
You can listen to a recording of this article at:
http://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/magazine-articles/mary-seacole
This support pack contains the following materials:
• the article that you can listen to
• a comprehension activity based on the article
Read the article
Mary Seacole
by Linda Baxter
The most famous nurse of all time must be
Florence Nightingale, the ‘lady with the lamp’,
who became famous for her work during the
Crimean War in the middle of the nineteenth
century. But have you heard of Mary Seacole? I
hope your answer is ‘Yes’, but I must admit that,
until recently, the name meant nothing to me at
all. Then, earlier this year, I read that a woman
called Mary Seacole had been voted the
‘Greatest Black Briton’ of all time in a BBC poll. I
was shocked to realise that I had no idea who
she was. When I found out more about her I
realised that she was ‘the black Florence
Nightingale’ that I had heard mentioned on a BBC
history programme a few years ago. So I did
some research. What was her story? And, more
importantly, why isn’t her name as well known as
Florence Nightingale’s?
The story
Mary Seacole was born in 1805 in Kingston,
Jamaica. Her mother was Jamaican and her
father was Scottish. Her mother ran a boarding
house for invalid soldiers and was also an expert
in herbal remedies, which she used to treat the
soldiers. When her mother died, Mary took over
the boarding house and the care of the sick
soldiers. In 1850 there was a serious outbreak of
cholera in Jamaica. Mary worked night and day
to help the victims and created her own herbal
medicine for the disease. She also believed that
clean conditions, fresh air and good food were
important in fighting the disease, ideas which
most doctors thought were ridiculous. She saved
the lives of thousands of people.
The war
When the Crimean War started, Jamaican troops
were sent to fight, and stories soon started to
reach Kingston about the terrible conditions that
they were suffering, and how badly they needed
nursing care. So Mary travelled to London in
1854 and presented herself at the War Office as
a volunteer nurse. But they refused her. She
went to all the military and nursing organisations
but not one of them wanted her services. So
Mary decided to go to the Crimea independently.
She opened a boarding house there to earn the
money to finance her nursing work. She
regularly went out onto the battlefields to feed
and care for the fallen soldiers, often putting her
own life in danger. The soldiers loved her and
called her ‘the black nightingale’.
The fame
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The United Kingdom’s international organisation for educational opportunities and cultural relations. We are registered in England as a charity.
Magazine – Mary Seacole
When the war finished Mary came back to
London as a famous figure – well known and well
oved by the British people, but completely
bankrupt as a result of her work. Some of the
officers and soldiers who knew her raised money
for her, but she still had financial problems. So
Mary once again decided to do something
herself. She wrote her autobiography called ‘The
Wonderful Adventures of Mrs Seacole in Many
Lands’. This was the only book she ever wrote,
but it was very successful and generated enough
money to allow her to live the rest of her life in
comfort, dividing her time between Jamaica and
London. She died in 1881 and was buried in
London, but as the years passed, her story was
forgotten outside of her native Jamaica.
The rediscovery
In 1973 a British nurse bought an old copy of
Mary’s book in a second-hand bookshop. She
did some detective work and found Mary’s
forgotten grave in a London cemetery. She
organised the restoration of the grave and a
special ceremony was held to honour her.
People began to hear about Mary and she
became a symbol for people involved in civil
rights, anti-racism campaigns, women’s liberation
and of course, nursing groups. In 1981 a special
service was held to mark the centenary of her
death. In 1984 ‘The Wonderful Adventures of
Mrs Seacole in Many Lands’ was reprinted so
that Mary’s story could reach a wider audience.
And of course, as you already know, she was
voted the Greatest Black Briton in 2004.
So, the question remains
Why was Mary Seacole forgotten? Racism?
Prejudice against such an independent woman?
Florence Nightingale was white and had friends
in high places. Mary Seacole was black but
overcame a lot of the racial prejudice against her
and had friends in high places too. Both women
wrote books. Florence Nightingale’s ‘Notes on
Nursing’ became a standard nursing textbook,
whereas Mary Seacole wrote nothing about the
theory of nursing. The medical community
accepted Florence Nightingale, whereas Mary
Seacole worked independently, outside of the
hospitals, and without the supervision of doctors.
Whatever the reasons, after a hundred years of
obscurity, Mary Seacole isn’t going to be
forgotten again.
After reading
Exercise 1
Decide if each of the following statements about the text are True or False.
1. The writer knew nothing about Mary Seacole until she read the results of the BBC poll.
2. Mary opened a new boarding house for sick soldiers in Jamaica.
3. Doctors disagreed with Mary’s ideas about the treatment of cholera.
4. The War office refused Mary because they didn’t need any more nurses.
5. Mary opened a boarding house in London to pay for her work in the Crimea.
6. Mary spent all of her money caring for the soldiers in the Crimea.
7. Mary lived on charity for the rest of her life.
8. Mary’s book was a best seller in the 1970s.
9. Mary was accepted by the most important people in the medical community.
10. Mary Seacole and Florence Nightingale had some things in common.
Answers
Exercise 1: 1. False (F); 2. F; 3. True (T); 4. F; 5. F; 6. T; 7. F; 8. F; 9. F; 10. T
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The United Kingdom’s international organisation for educational opportunities and cultural relations. We are registered in England as a charity.