Spotlight turns to 'Black Florence' Seacole's Scottish roots

JOHN Sutherland is not the only Scot whose role in the Florence Nightingale story is being re-examined afresh.

Mary Seacole, a Jamaican nurse described as "the black Florence Nightingale" for her work in Crimea, was the daughter of an unknown Scottish soldier.

Seacole also features in the revamped museum and efforts are underway to commemorate her with a statue to rival that erected to Nightingale in 1915.

In her autobiography, The Wonderful Adventures of Mrs Seacole – one of the few historical sources on her life – the Jamaican nurse writes in an opening paragraph: "I am a Creole, and have good Scotch blood coursing in my veins. My father was a soldier of an old Scotch family."

But the identity of her father – Seacole was born Mary Jane Grant in about 1805, and later married an Edwin Seacole – is a mystery. Researcher Helen Rappaport – who found the only known portrait of Seacole – said she has traced 16 Grants serving in the British army or militia in Jamaica about the time that Seacole and her sister, Louisa Grant, were born.

But without a first name or birthdate the task of tracing her family origins has proved almost impossible. "It would be wonderful if someone in Scotland knew something, but nothing has yet come to light," Rappaport said. "There's nothing at all to go on, just a surname."