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So, I will post one biography of a black historical Briton for every day of the month, starting with....

Mary Seacole

Francis Barber

Francis Williams

Julius Soubise

Olaudah Equiano

Ignatius Sancho

William Cuffay

Ira Aldridge

John Edmonstone

In reply to mikesiva

Nice! Of course most Jamaicans still know nothing about her even though a Hall of Residence was named after her at the UCWI in 1947 when it began and is still there at the UWI Mona campus.

Here below is my rendering of her in a BHM event in Ottawa a few years ago:


by Ewart Walters

Through the pioneering activities of Black History Ottawa, we have begun to hear over the past 20 years, some of the contributions Black men made to the development of countries. In Canada, the late Senator Calvin Ruck of Nova Scotia wrote about a group of Black Canadians who, because of their colour, were not allowed to fight for Canada in the First World War. Undaunted, they set themselves up as a Construction Brigade and assisted the war effort in that way. However, we have not heard much about the Black women who struggled to be accepted as part of the war effort.

You most likely have heard about the great nurse Florence Nightingale. Well, in the best traditions of Black History Month, here is a tale of a nurse you have not heard about, although her activities in many ways surpassed those of Florence Nightingale.

Mary Seacole was a pioneering heroine of the Crimean War. A Jamaican, she was born in Kingston in 1805 and learned her nursing skills from her mother who kept a boarding house for invalid soldiers. Mary's mother was a great believer in herbal medicines and treated sick people. Her medicines were based on the knowledge the slaves brought from Africa. It was passed on to Mary who also became a 'doctress.'

In those days, Jamaica was still owned and run by the British, and the soldiers in Jamaica were British. Some of her customers were military doctors. She charmed them into sharing their science with her, even as she dispensed her Creole medicines. “I never failed to glean instruction, which they gave with a readiness and kindness when they learned her love for their profession,” she said. Her fame as a doctress grew and she was soon operating on people suffering from knife and gunshot wounds.

Her father was a white Scottish military officer and her mother a Black Jamaican. In 1826, Mary married Edward Seacole, a godson of the British Admiral Horatio Nelson. Although she was a Black woman, Mary was not a slave. She was free, but she had few civil rights – she could not vote, hold public office or enter the professions.

On August 1, 1838, all slaves in Jamaica were emancipated from slavery and became known as full free. This followed the Abolition of Slavery Act in 1834.

Mary Seacole’s husband died eighteen years after marriage, and her mother died shortly afterwards. By then, she had visited Cuba, Haiti and the Bahamas where she collected details of how people used local plants and herbs to treat the sick. On trips to America and England she complemented her traditional knowledge with European ideas. In 1850 she visited her brother in Panama. It was the midst of a cholera epidemic, and when the American doctor fled the scene, she cared for people single-handedly. She even carried out an autopsy on one victim and was thus able to learn even more about the way the disease attacked the body.

Back in Jamaica, she cared for victims of a yellow fever outbreak and was invited to supervise the nursing services at Up-Park Camp in Kingston, which was the headquarters of the British army.

In 1853, war broke out in southern Ukraine where the Crimean peninsula juts into the Black Sea. Russia had invaded Turkey. Britain and France went to Turkey's aid in what became known as the Crimean War. Soon after British soldiers arrived in Turkey, they were smitten with cholera and malaria. Within a few weeks some 8,000 men were afflicted. So bad was the impact of disease that, of the 21,000 soldiers who died in the Crimean War, only 3,000 died from injuries received in battle.

Florence Nightingale was chosen to take a team of 39 nurses to treat the sick soldiers, but she had little practical experience with cholera. So Mary Seacole went from Jamaica to England in 1854 aiming to join Florence. Although Mary was an expert at dealing with cholera, her application to join Florence's team was rejected, repeatedly, because she was Black.

However, you can’t keep a good woman down. Raising funds she paid her passage to the Crimea. There, she tried once more to join the Nightingale nurses.

She found Nightingale in a hospital, safely located some distance behind the trenches. Seacole walked down the dreary aisles of hospital cots, finding Nightingale in an office, busy with the work of organizing nurses. After a short delay, Nightingale received Seacole. "Willingly, had they accepted me," Seacole writes, "I would have worked for the wounded, in return for bread and water." But Nightingale had no room for this offer. Her secretary made the situation clear: "Miss Nightingale has the entire management of our hospital staff, but I do not think that any vacancy ..."

Seacole did not need to hear the end of that sentence. Scraping her savings together, she set up the British Hotel near Balaclava. Here she sold food and drink to the British soldiers, earning money to finance the medical treatment she gave to the soldiers. While Florence Nightingale worked in safety, Mother Seacole, as she became known, went to nurse the wounded men on the field of battle. On several occasions she was found treating men from both sides while the battle was still going on.

In March 1856, the war ended and Mary found herself in severe financial difficulties that ended up with a London Court declaring her bankrupt. However, the press highlighted her plight. The Times newspaper published letters from well wishers, and on December 6 Punch magazine published a poem 'A Stir for Seacole' to be sung to the tune of the nursery rhyme 'Old King Cole.' Money was raised for her through a grand military festival held over four nights at the Royal Surrey Gardens on the banks of the River Thames in London. A great success, it attracted thousands of people and was supported by Lords, military commanders and almost a thousand artistes. She was awarded the Crimean Medal, the French Legion of Honour and a Turkish medal.

Then the Court declared that Mary was no longer a debtor.

In comparison to Florence Nightingale, Mary did not come from a wealthy middle class background or have any formal training. Not only did she suffer from the restrictions placed on women at the time, she was also hindered by the colour of her skin.

Nevertheless, she established herself as a pioneer of the nursing profession. She died in 1881 after a short illness, and was buried in St. Mary’s Catholic cemetery in England. Obituaries appeared in the Times, the Manchester Guardian and the Daily Gleaner of Jamaica.

Old discriminatory habits die hard. In 1915 the Crimean War Memorial was erected in London - it included a statue of Florence Nightingale but not one for Mary Seacole. It was left to Jamaica to start the formal recognition of Mary Seacole. The Nurses' Association named their Kingston headquarters Mary Seacole House. Then a residence hall at the new University of the West Indies in Kingston was named after her in the mid 1940s and so was a ward in Kingston Public Hospital.

England has since picked up the cue and has begun to give recognition to Mary Seacole. In November 1973, a ceremony was held to re-consecrate her grave. In 2003, an appeal was launched by a British MP to erect a statue of Mary Seacole in London. Last year she was declared the winner of the 100 Great Black Britons contest. Earlier this month the UK Home Office named one of the buildings in its new headquarters after Mary Seacole, and a long lost portrait of Mary Seacole went on display at the National Portrait Gallery. These followed the January 25 launching in London of a series of activities to mark her bicentennial.

Like the men of the Construction Brigade, Mary Seacole never sought recognition; she only wanted to offer her talents to make others comfortable.

//

In reply to Ewart

That's a good one!

Here's the 10th name for the 10th day....

Fanny Eaton

The 11th name for the 11th day....

Samuel Coleridge-Taylor

In reply to mikesiva

Cool bro - thanks

In reply to mikesiva


Wow!


//

Wind Swept/Deportee Party?

You see him? You see the racist punk Dan and what him ah try?

He can't help himself.

DWL

In reply to JahJah

You are just that...that us where UK goes to fish for illigals and criminals. Like Canada did at the Caribana parade...scanned your driver licence in your pocket MR SHEEP.

You are lucky being a fruit picker in Halton Region

In reply to Chrissy

My pleasure!

The 12th name for the 12th day...Olive Morris, feminist, black nationalist, community leader.

Olive Morris

Nice thread Mike
I'll catch up the reading a bit later.

In reply to mikesiva

After imprisonment:

In reply to Casper

The racist brutality of the British police is quite an eye-opener, isn't it?

I'm happy to oblige....

The 13th name for the 13th day:

Robert Wedderburn

In reply to JahJah

I'm ignoring the idiot....

The 14th name for the 14th day:

Mary Prince

The 15th name for the 15th day....

Ottobah Cugoano

In reply to mikesiva

In reply to Tryangle

Actually, very few people know about Mary Prince in Britain...they don't learn about her in school. You just have a few black British organisations talking about her.

Hence why I'm doing this....

The 16th name for the 16th day....

Walter Tull

17) The 17th name for the 17th day...an anti-slavery activist and campaigner for equal rights for people of colour:

Louis Celeste Lecesne

1 The 18th names for the 18th day...In 1913, Battersea elected a mayor who became the first black mayor of a section of London:

John Archer

19) The 19th name for the 19th day...Jamaican physicist, anti-racism campaigner, and founder of the League of Coloured Peoples in 1931:

Harold Moody

In reply to mikesiva

Stop grasping on straws thinking BlackS are wanted in England. Go watch some wind rush Docmentaries. It is not head in sand, it is head up the ass y'all colored Britas are suffering from and masquerade as "free". Look in the mirror. You don't look like a black leader

See your value here

In reply to Dan_De_Lyan

bro, mike has no delusions.

What he is doing is highlighting the STRENGTH of our own, regardless of the oppressor. You misunderstand the potency of history and the tireless effort of those who showcase ours. Going as far to attack his effort, is exactly the dream of the oppressor: bitches attacking their own.

@mikesiva: good stuff bro. thanks for the links.

In reply to Dan_De_Lyan

Good read! The writer gives one a reality check!

In reply to pelon

Mental slavery is a thing....eat seconds.

Those who forget the past are condemned to repeat.

Now u are an uppity black with a mortgage...

In reply to Dan_De_Lyan

In reply to pelon

WindRush for a refresh: Colored British Subjects

one more

FIGHTINGTOBEBRITISH

Another

In reply to pelon

My pleasure! as you know, I'm under no illusions about the racism that exists in Britain, hence why we need to highlight our own achievements.

20) The 20th name for the 20th day...one of the first black MPs in the British parliament:

Bernie Grant

In reply to mikesiva

You are not b..gautam.

In reply to Dan_De_Lyan

Don't you have a stone to crawl back under?

21) The 21st name for the 21st day...former West Indies cricketer, anti-racism campaigner, lawyer and politician, who became Trinidad's High Commissioner to the UK, and later the first UK black peer:

Learie Constantine

22) The 22nd name for the 22nd day...actress and singer in the first half of the 20th century:

Evelyn Dove

23) The 23rd name for the 23rd day...Jamaican-born novelist and artist:

Namba Roy

In reply to mikesiva

Blacks and colored are given time position to appease in England


You are pretending to be cuffy on here but you distinguishing characteristics suggest otherwise.

In reply to Dan_De_Lyan

Oh great, another poster who thinks he knows exactly who other posters are! Just what we need....

24) The 24th name for the 24th day...probably the first black professional player in England:

Arthur Wharton

25) The 25th name for the 25th day...mixed-race violinist who travelled and performed throughout Europe in the 19th century:

George Bridgetower

26) The 26th name for the 26th day...mixed-race foreman rewarded for actions during a fire at the Woolwich Arsenal in 1919:

Donald Adolphus Brown

27) The 27th name for the 27th day...broadcaster, writer and civil liberties campaigner:

Darcus Howe

2 The 28th name for the 28th day...Trinidadian lawyer who founded the African Association in the UK in 1897, to combat paternalism, racism and imperialism:

Henry Sylvester Williams

In reply to mikesiva

Mike, I have enjoyed your series thus far, great work.

In reply to Emir

Thanks!

29) The 29th name for the 29th day...a Jamaican who became the first black pilot to fly for Britain in World War One:

William Robinson Clarke

this is great news mike

looking out for you at some stage

In reply to doosra

I applied for that position! But congrats to Olivette...I'm sure she will do an excellent job.

30) The 30th name for the 30th day...Nigerian-born novelist, playwright and activist, one of the founding members of the British Black Panthers:

Obi Egbuna

My last entry!

31) The 31st name for the 31st day...Jamaican-born sociologist, cultural theorist, and political activist:

Stuart Hall

In reply to mikesiva

sorry you didn't get that call man. best wishes

thanks for the list

maybe put them all together on your blog

Thanks Mike, that was a very good series.