Seacole College

Mary Seacole

After 14 wonderful years as da Vinci college, I am proud and pleased to announce that we will be renamed Seacole college from September 2022. Before I explain the many qualities that make Seacole such an excellent choice as our new college figurehead, please allow me a moment to explain how the college name was decided.

In modules 3 and 4, tutor groups were given the opportunity to identify potential new college figurehead names, based on people who have inspired them in their lives to this point. Each tutor group decided on one person, and then presented their candidate to Mr Brewer, Ms Bodle, Molly Beaney (da Vinci Head Student) and Kelci Agun (Academy Deputy Head Girl). We were all amazed at the thoroughness of the research and quality of presentations from everyone involved and it was a real pleasure to hear our students talk with such passion about inspirational figures of the past and present. Particular mention must go to the students of DV 2, DV 4 and DV 6 at this point who were superb in presenting Queen Elizabeth II, Sir David Attenborough and Alan Turing but it was the students from DV 1 who won the day with a stunning presentation on Mary Seacole. Congratulations to all students involved from these four tutor groups who presented again to Mr Brewer and Mrs Collins in the large boardroom before the final college figurehead decisions were made.

Mary Seacole was born on 23 November, 1805 in Kingston, Jamaica. Her mother was from Jamaica and her father was a Scottish army officer. Mary epitomises the IB MYP Learner Profile characteristics we seek to embed in our students in the way she led her life. She was risk-taking, caring and open-minded, exemplified in her mission to put others before herself.

Between 1850-1853 Mary nursed victims of the cholera epidemic in both Jamaica and Panama. She was invited by the medical authorities to supervise nursing services at Up-Park in Kingston, the British Army’s headquarters, and she re-organised New Blundell Hall, her mother’s former lodging house rebuilt after a fire, to function as a hospital. Mary had no children of her own, but the strong maternal attachments she formed with these soldiers, and her feelings for them, would later drive Mary to Crimea.

The Crimean War lasted from October 1853 until February 1856. It was fought by a coalition, including Britain, against the Russian Empire. Mary travelled to England and approached the British War Office, asking to be sent as an army nurse to the Crimea where she had heard there were poor medical facilities for wounded soldiers. She was refused. Undaunted, she funded her own trip to Crimea, where she established the British Hotel with Thomas Day, a relative of her husband, Edwin. The hotel provided a place of respite for sick and recovering soldiers. At the time, Mary was as well-known in Britain as Florence Nightingale. Ms Nightingale’s famous military hospital was situated hundreds of miles from the frontline in Scutari (now called Üsküdar, just outside the Turkish city of Istanbul). But Mary’s hotel near Balaclava was much closer to the fighting. Mary was able to visit the battlefield, sometimes under fire, to nurse the wounded. Indeed, she nursed sick soldiers so kindly that they called her ‘Mother Seacole’.

When the war ended, Mary went back to Britain with very little money. Soldiers wrote letters to newspapers, praising what she had done. The Times War Correspondent, Sir William H Russell, wrote of Mary in 1857: “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”. All those who admired her came to her aid, whether soldiers, generals or members of the Royal family. In 1857 a fund-raising gala was held for her over four nights on the banks of the River Thames. Over 80,000 people attended. The same year she published her autobiography, The Wonderful Adventures of Mrs Seacole in Many Lands, which became an instant bestseller.

Mary died in London in 1881. Unfortunately, she was then lost to history for around 100 years until nurses from the Caribbean visited her grave in North West London, where the local MP, now Lord Clive Soley, promised to raise money for a statue for Mary. In 2004, Mary was voted the Greatest Black Briton. Lord Soley launched the campaign for a statue after leaving the House of Commons. In 2016, the statue was finally unveiled in the grounds of St Thomas’ Hospital on London’s Southbank.

Her legacy is continued by the Mary Seacole Trust (MST) which, as well as maintaining the statue, aims to educate and inform the public about her life, work and achievements, ensuring that she is never again lost to history.

Mary Seacole is a great role model. Her values of good citizenship (she always wanted to help the sick and wounded), entrepreneurship (her drive took her to the Crimea under her own steam) and achievement (she remains one of history’s greatest figures) hold true today. We look forward to establishing Mary Seacole as our new college figurehead and is a truly inspirational person for our students to aspire to be like.

Mr K Brewer - Head of Seacole College