Mary Seacole: The Most Famous Black Woman of the Victorian Age

I used to think the surname of Mary Seacole (1805-1881) was a slave-name. Imagine my surprise when I opened this captivating new biography and discovered she born Mary Grant, and married Edwin Horatio Hamilton Seacole - who was probably an illegitimate son of Admiral Lord Nelson. Jane Robinson's unravelling of Mary's own illegitimate roots in Jamaica is also fascinating. Frustrating though Jamaica can be, however, writing of Mary's mother, `perhaps she was Jane, Mary's middle name' and then proceeding to call her Jane throughout, is naughty. Not much is known about Mary, but what there is amply justifies this otherwise splendid biography. Motivated by a passion to be useful - and rich - Mary followed in her mother's footsteps by opening a hospital-hotel dispensing native remedies near Sevastopol, in 1855, to tend to the British soldiers in the Crimean War. By dispensing booze with her herbal medicines, she earned Florence Nightingale's opprobrium. But the common soldiers whom she mothered loved her, as did some high-ranking officers related to Queen Victoria. Despite short-term bankruptcy caused by the end of the war, Mary thus became medicinal `rubber' to the future Queen Alexandra. The soldiers held a benefit festival for her too, and she raised further funds by writing a best-selling autobiography. The 19th century contained many obstacles that stopped mixed-race women from achieving ambitions. Mary overcame many - yet ultimately it was white Florence, not black Mary, who became the heroine of the Crimea. Recently, though, Africa has reclaimed her as a role-model. When Patrick Vernon, whom I interviewed in November's edition of this magazine, created his 100 Great Black Britains poll in 2003 (www.100greatblackbritons.com), Mary Seacole won.