The Myth of Mary Seacole

Lessons in lies: How  the BBC, school text books and even exam boards have twisted history to smear Florence Nightingale and make a saint of this woman, Daily Mail  by  PROFESSOR LYNN MCDONALD

·         Commemorative statue of Mary Seacole was unveiled in London last month

·         Seacole has been treated with huge reverence - but is surrounded by myth

·         Presented as medical pioneer - though she was never even a nurse

·         Even school exams award marks for repeating falsehoods about Seacole

·         Florence Nightingale - an actual pioneer - is often denigrated in comparison 

Across the river from the Houses of Parliament in London, a small yet significant ceremony took place last month.

As a few dignitaries looked on in the gardens of St Thomas’ Hospital, a Church of England chaplain blessed the ground where a 10ft statue is to be erected next summer.

While few public artworks are treated with quite such reverence, all the great and good who gathered for the event were conscious that the £500,000 bronze will be the first public memorial to celebrate the ‘black pioneer nurse’ Mary Seacole.

Although some would say she was morally deserving of recognition –- and indeed a statue - for her warm heart and personal courage, the story of Mary Seacole has been spun out of all proportion, her memory hijacked and her achievements embellished in order to provide a role model.

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Further Reading:

The black Florence Nightingale and the making of a PC myth: One historian explains how Mary Seacole's story never stood up

Florence Nightingale, Nursing Legend, British Icon