Crimea black nurse forgotten

(Independent) Five years after being voted the greatest black Briton the memorial to Mary Seacole is struggling for money. The fundraising total is £50,000, way short of the £400,000 needed to complete the bronze statue for the forgotten heroine of the Crimean War, a black nurse from Jamaica who tended the wounds of injured and dying soldiers. Her reputation at the time rivalled that of Florence Nightingale but while Britain has revered the "Lady the lamp" for more than 150 years, Mary Seacole was only a historical footnote. Her real status was not revealed until she was included in the national curriculum to illustrate racial attitudes and the contributions made by ethnic minority women to British society.

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