to: Mark Carney, Governor
Bank of England
Threadneedle Street
London EC1R 8AH
December 9, 2018
Dear Dr Carney
The points made in the letter to you on Mary Seacole, by numerous MPs, are either clearly erroneous or unsubstantiated. We urge you to consult her own (fine and interesting) memoir, Wonderful Adventures of Mrs Seacole in Many Lands, which will belie so much of what is said of her by her current fans.
- “She became distinguished for nursing victims of the cholera epidemic and the yellow fever epidemic in both Kingston and Panama.” But she admitted she could do nothing on yellow fever, and her cholera remedy included lead and mercury. There is simply no evidence that her “remedies” helped anyone, and dehydration, by vomiting and purging of the bowels, is wrong: the effective treatment is rehydration.
- “Upon learning of the inadequate medical facilities for soldiers in Crimea, Seacole travelled to England and requested that the British War Office send her as an army nurse.” Hardly! Mrs Seacole went to England to attend to her gold stocks, not to offer help. After some 2 months of fruitless attempts to that end, she decided to go to the war, AFTER Nightingale and her nursing team had left. She never sent in the required application to the War Office, (the are at the National Archives, Kew). Instead, dropped into various offices seeking to go, too late.
- That she provided comfortable facilities for those sick and injured. No. The “British Hotel,” the name of her business, was a hut that sold meals, fine wines, etc., but there was no accommodation for the sick, well or injured (see her memoir!). She was called “Mother Seacole” by officers and friends, her usual customers. Ordinary soldiers were allowed to make purchases at a different hut from the officers, but could hardly have afforded her prices for meals and wine.
- Her business was much appreciated by officers, who raised money for her after she and her business partner had to declare bankruptcy. It is correct that Mrs Seacole was named at the top of the “Black Briton” list, but it should be understood that she did not identify as a black. She was a property-owning Jamaican, a Creole, with a white father, a white husband, a white clientele– she employed blacks, such as “my good-for-nothing black cooks” and her maid was black. She did experience discrimination herself, mainly from Americans in Panama. She handled herself with aplomb on those occasions. In short, the case made for her omits rather a lot. Nor has anyone provided any evidence of any pioneering contribution she made to nursing.
Yours sincerely
[31 members of the Nightingale Society]