Mary Seacole, A Founding Mother of Modern Nursing

During the Crimean War, Mary Seacole (1805-1881), a British-Jamaican traditional healer and nurse known as ‘Mother’ and ‘doctress’, was of renowned reputation for her service to the wounded and sick regardless of allegiance. In her autobiography, Wonderful Adventures of Mrs. Seacole in Many Lands, Seacole details her experience with tropical disease healing across borders. Motivated to aid those in need, she applied and was rejected by the War Office and Crimean Fund for sponsorship to serve.

“Among the diseases which I understood were most prevalent in the Crimea were cholera, diarrhea, and dysentery, all of them more or less known in tropical climates; and with which, as the reader will remember, my Panama experience had made me tolerably familiar. Now, no one will accuse me of presumption, if I say that I thought (and so it afterwards proved) that my knowledge of these human ills would not only render my services as a nurse more valuable, but would enable me to be of use to the overworked doctors.”

Undeterred by the rejection, Seacole self-funded her travels to Crimea and set herself up at the British Hotel, a quarters regarded highly by servicemembers at the time. A contemporary of Florence Nightingale, Seacole’s nursing interventions and contributions have recently been revived by Black historians and nursing professionals through the Mary Seacole Trust.

Lesser known nursing pioneers to follow Seacole include Annie Brewster (1858-1902), an Afro-Vincentian registered ophthalmic nurse, Princess Omo-Oba Adenrele Ademola (b. 1916) a Nigerian royal and registered midwife, and Princess Tsehai Haile Selassie (1919-1942), Ethiopian royal and registered state nurse. As research emerges about the presence of Black nurses prior to the establishment of the National Health Service in 1948, Brewster, Ademola, and Selassie exist in history as the earliest recorded Black female nursing professionals and UK-based hospital employees despite gender and race based employment discrimination.

Black Women and the National Health Service, 1948 to Present

The birth of the National Health Service (NHS) in 1948 revolutionized healthcare access and promotion just as the British Nationality Act extended citizenship and the right to abode in the United Kingdom due to the Commonwealth. As migrants from the Caribbean made their way to the United Kingdom via the Windrush, young Black women from Africa and the Caribbean were recruited to fill thousands of staffing positions across the United Kingdom that remained vacant despite efforts of NHS administrators and hospital systems.

The experiences and contributions of these women have been the focus of several books and documentaries including the BBC’s Black and British: A Forgotten History and Black Nurses: The Women Who Saved the NHS, and Karen Flynn’s Moving Beyond Borders: A History of Black Canadian and Caribbean Women in the Diaspora. While navigating and combating racist and sexist hostilities and discrimination across medical education and hospital systems, Black nurses rescued the NHS from near failure — prescribing and delivering care for patients and communities.

Notable Black nurses and midwives that, in past and present, shape and influence NHS policy and practices as related to Black nursing professionals and their communities include: Cecilia Akrisie Anim, former president of the Royal College of Nursing, Dame Donna Kinnair, former Chief Executive and General Secretary of the Royal College of Nursing, Dame Elizabeth Nneka Anionwu, healthcare administrator and Emeritus Professor of Nursing at University of West London, Dame Karlene Davis, former General Secretary of the Royal College of Midwives, Jacqueline Dunkley-Bent, Chief Midwifery Officer and Professor of Midwifery at King's College London and London South Bank University, and Dr. Nola Ishmael, retired nurse and recipient of the prestigious BJN Lifetime Achievement Award in 2021.

Black Nurses and the Fight for Black British Lives

The undeniable presence and contributions of Black nurses and midwives to safeguarding public health across time continues to be at odds with institutional racism, resulting in employment discrimination, poor promotion and advancement outcomes, and a lack of Black female representation in leadership roles across the hospital system. Beverley Brathwaite, Senior Lecturer of Adult Nursing at the University of Hertfordshire, Hatfield, argues that the evidence and experiences of BAME female nurses point to the ongoing gendered and racialized environment that is the modern-day NHS. British colonial constructs of the BAME female are of a nurse who is not equal to that of most nurses who are white and female.

Black nurses and midwives, however, continue to be agents in advocacy and activism for themselves and their communities. Organizations such as Equality 4 Black Nurses, a grassroots movement launched by Neomi Bennett BME, grow out of the global outcry for justice for George Floyd and the Black Lives Matter movement. Equality 4 Black Nurses has taken the lead in advocating for the rights of healthcare staff affected by racism and discrimination in the workplace.

Looking back at the incredible yet underappreciated contributions of Black nurses to the healthcare system during a time of global crisis, it is timely and opportune this Black History Month to both recognize and honour the continued vital role of Black nurses and midwives across the United Kingdom. Throughout and beyond the global COVID19 pandemic, their work and contributions shape health and wellbeing for all.