Mary Jane Seacole was born Mary Grant in 1805. Her father was a Scottish military officer.

In 1836, Mary married Edward Seacole, but her husband died shortly afterwards .

Mary was a skilled nurse. When the Crimean War broke out, she traveled to London and asked to go to Crimea to tend to the wounded soldiers but she was not granted an interview by the British War Office. So instead she made her own way there and set up a medical store and hostel near Balaclava.

She often went to the battlefield to attend to the wounded there. On the battlefield she nursed the wounded and was known by the name of 'Mother Seacole'. Even though she met Florence Nightingale, she was not invited to join her nursing team.

"She was a wonderful woman.... all the men swore by her, and in case of any malady , would seek her advise and use her herbal medicines, in preference to reporting themselves to their own doctors. That she did effect some cure is beyond doubt, and her never failing presence amongst the wounded after a battle and assisting them made her beloved buy the rank and file of the whole army"

After the war, Mary Seacole hd no money left, but her story was carried by the British press and money was raised  to pay off her debts.

In 1857, she published The Wonderful Adventures of Mrs. Seacole in Many Lands. The book was a great success and Mary Seacole became a popular figure. She spend the rest of her life traveling and working. She was awarded the Crimean Medal, the French Legion of Honour and a Turkish medal. Mary Seacole died in 1881.