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.
Further Reading:
Florence Nightingale, Nursing Legend, British Icon
