Mary Seacole and Florence Nightingale

• Florence Nightingale set off for Scutari with 38 nurses in October 1854
• Raglan had limited the amount of medical professionals available because he wanted he needed space for soldiers and horses on the ships
• At the start of the war, there were no doctors signed up for the Crimea
• Initially during the war, wounded men would tend to the wounded also, and veteran soldiers would be drafted in to help as stretcher bearers or “orderlies”
• Nightingale immediately cleaned up the wards and encouraged lightly wounded men to grow vegetables on site
• In October 1854, a report was published by Nightingale’s superior that conditions in the hospital were improving
• Mary Clayton, a nurse who worked in Scutari described it as a horrible place where no one trusted or spoke well of each other. She also mentioned that people abused others behind their backs.
• The Times organised a fund of £30k to go towards funding the hospital at Scutari, showing just how much of a celebrity Nightingale had become at home. Using this fund she not only funded Scutari, she also funded other hospitals such as the Barrack hospital.
• Nightingale blamed disease on miasma
• In early 1855, a new government under Lord Palmerston was formed, meaning Nightingale lost her supporter in government: Sidney Herbert. However Palmerston was also her supporter.
• In March 1855, the McNeill-Tulloch report exposed the horrible conditions at Scutari (maybe she hadn’t done that much good?). Many of the issues she had tried to raise awareness about were exposed officially. However she welcomed the report and implemented the changes required. She also worked hard to improve medicine and aid supply to the front lines.
• Nightingale was a divisive figure among her colleagues, both due to sexist attitudes and her singlemindedness. She often wrongly accused nursing colleagues of theft or drunkenness.
• In 1856, Nightingale was named the superintendent of the Female Nursing Establishment in Crimea
• A report by Thomas Chenery briefly before Nightingale arrived at Scutari detailed how it was ‘light and airy’ with only a ‘few bad smells’. Critics said she overhyped how disgusting it was when she arrived.
• When Nightingale returned from Crimea, she argued for a full enquiry into the medical situation during the war
• By 1859, a fund set up in the name of Nightingale had raised £45k to train new nurses
• Mary Seacole was an experienced doctor and healer from Jamaica, so impressive was she that she was recalled from abroad by Jamaican authorities to help treat an outbreak of yellow fever in 1853, showing she already had a good reputation by this point
• In 1854, Seacole travelled to London and volunteered as a nurse, however she was turned away, possibly because of being mixed-race
• In January 1955 she sailed for Crimea alone to join an old business partner, Thomas Day (on the way she stopped at Scutari to try and join Nightingale but to no avail)
• Seacole opened they British Hotel on Spring Hill outside Balaclava in spring 1855
• In Seacole’s British Hotel, soldiers could enjoy hot food, shelter, coffee and the ability to buy better clothing and shoes
• Seacole also treated patients in the British Hotel’s clinic, she was often more successful than the official army surgeons as she had experience with treating fevers and cholera
• Mary Seacole, unlike Nightingale, visited battlefields regularly and provided first aid to soldiers in the field
• Seacole continued running the British Hotel until 1856, by which point most of the British troops had left
• Seacole later attempted to set up a new business in the UK, which unfortunately was unsuccessful. However she had made some friends who came to her aid such as war correspondent William H Russel. She released her memoirs in 1857.
• Mary Seacole had a significant impact in her area by traveling to battlefields and providing various services, not just medicine, to soldiers fit and ill
• Florence Nightingale's lasting impact was seen through her ability to bring about change in nursing by establishing a £45k fund for nurse training
• Nightingale's effectiveness in kickstarting the modern nursing profession was partly due to her connections and friends in high places
• An important issue to consider is whether Nightingale's effectiveness was solely due to her privilege as an upper middle-class white woman compared to Seacole's Jamaican upbringing