When I find myself in times of trouble, Mother Mary comes to me
Speaking words of wisdom, let it be
Let it be, let it be
So goes the Beatles song, Let it Be.....................However, I do not think that Lennon and McCartney were thinking of the lady in this story when they wrote it. Then again, you never know...
Some time ago, whilst unfortunately not paying too much attention, I caught something over my shoulder that my wife was watching on television. It was about the central figure in this wonderful story and the lady’s great achievements.
To my shame, I had never heard of her before as my only schoolboy teachings on nursing in the Crimea were about Florence Nightingale – The Lady with the Lamp.
I now know why Florence needed the Lamp – Mary Seacole puts her in the shade...
Since the TV programme, I have read everything I can find about Mary and her story is truly remarkable. As a result, I now elevate her to the same level as my other great black heroine – Rosa Parks of the Montgomery Bus Boycott as part of the Civil Rights movement.
Mary Jane Seacole was born Mary Jane Grant in Kingston, Jamaica, her father was a Lieutenant in the British Army, and a free Jamaican woman. Her mother, Mrs Grant, nicknamed "The Doctress", was a healer who used traditional Caribbean and African herbal remedies and ran Blundell Hall, a boarding house at 7 East Street, considered one of the best hotels in all of Kingston.
Mary Seacole spent some years in the household of an elderly woman, whom she called her "kind patroness", before returning to her mother. She was treated as a member of her patroness's family and received a good education. As the educated daughter of a Scottish officer and a free black woman with a respectable business, Seacole would have held a high position in Jamaican society.
She married Edwin Horatio Hamilton Seacole in Kingston on 10 November 1836. (Seacole's will indicates that Horatio Seacole was Nelson's godson: She left a diamond ring to her friend, Lord Rokeby, "given to my late husband by his godfather Viscount Nelson", but there was no mention of this godson in Nelson's own will or its codicils. They lived at Black River and opened a provisions store which failed to prosper. They returned to Blundell Hall in the early 1840s.
Mary loved travelling and visited many parts of the world. In 1851, Seacole travelled to Cruces in Panama to visit her brother. Shortly after her arrival, the town was struck by cholera, a disease which had reached Panama in 1849. Many, both rich and poor, succumbed. She eschewed opium, preferring mustard rubs and poultices, with other herbal concoctions, which she had learned through her mother back in Kingston. While her preparations had moderate success, she faced little competition, the only other treatments coming from a "timid little dentist",. provided by the Pamama government and the Catholic Church.
She continued to travel widely around the Caribbean and Central America. She witnessed the partial abolition of slavery there in 1834 and the full abolition four years later.
Seacole travelled from Navy Bay in Panama to England, initially to deal with her business investments. She then attempted to join the second contingent of nurses to the Crimea.
Having heard and read of the suffering and deaths in the Crimean War, and the fact that Female British nurses were in service there, she applied to the War Office and other government offices, but arrangements for departure were already underway. In her memoir, she wrote that she brought "ample testimony" of her experience in nursing, but the only example officially cited was that of a former medical officer of the West Granada Gold-Mining Company. However, Seacole wrote that this was just one of the testimonials she had in her possession.
She went directly to the War Office where she sought out anyone whom she thought might be able to help her...................
The main obstruction to her and many other women’s desire to assist in nursing the soldiers was the stubborn attitude of Queen Victoria and other influential women of the Court.
Victoria had many other quirks which affected even the laws of the land at the time. Personally I think she was in a little dream world of her own and busy producing a very large family who would subsequently marry into every European and Russian kingdoms.
So what was Mary to do?.........There was nothing else to do but pack her bags and make her own way to the war zone. She borrowed money and began the 4,000 mile trip on her own. She established, believe it or not, a type of hotel which became known as the British Hotel. It was built from everything she could find, steal or borrow.
The hotel provided food and drink for both soldiers and ‘visiting sightseers’.
She would regularly visit the front lines where, often in danger from mortars and gunfire all around her, she would treat the injured and nurse their wounds. She quickly became known as ‘Mother Mary’.
In actual fact, I believe that Florence became very jealous of Mary for she complained to higher authority that she considered her to be running a brothel.
She refused permission to her nurses to have any association with Mary or visit the premises even though at times they were working in a transport hospital close by.
After the war, it would appear that Florence relented and did in fact acknowledge Mary’s great work and the good she had done for the soldiers. When Mary faced bankruptcy Florence was an anonymous donor.
When the treaty ending the war was signed in March 1856, Mary found herself with large quantities of expensive goods still in stock. She tried to sell them off cheaply but ended up having to auction them at the best price she could get from even the most expensive items.
During her time in the war zone, Mary was giving credit and one of her employees had been cashing cheques. She now found herself in dire straits. Although many of the officers and men who had known her made collections in the form of cash, she was declared bankrupt in November 1856.
However, her finances and the problems she had were highlighted by the British Press and as a result she was discharged from bankruptcy. Moreover she had to leave her regular quarters and move to cheaper ones in London.
In 1860 she returned to Jamaica but continued her journeys for many years. She returned to England and died in 1881 at her home in England.
For a modern woman to do one tenth of what Mary Seacole did would not cause a flutter of the eyelids but to think that a lady in her position, mixed race and poor to travel half-way around the world to render nursing assistance over one hundred and sixty years ago leaves me amazed.
Finally, whenever, if ever, you think of Florence Nightingale, the Lady with the Lamp, also think of Mary Seacole, upon whom the light should shine far more brightly than it does.....................
No comments:
Post a Comment