Mary Seacole gets another honour
As the campaign to build a permanent monument to Jamaican-born heroine Mary Seacole gains momentum, another honour has been bestowed on her, with a major landmark in Salford, UK, dedicated to inter-professional teaching and research in health and social care, now named in her honour.
The £22 million building at the University of Salford in Greater Manchester was opened by British Paralympic champion Dame Tanni Grey-Thompson recently, who officially unveiled a plaque commemorating the launch of the centre for health and social care teaching and research, and the life of the black Crimean war nurse . The five-storey glass building houses subjects such as nursing, exercise, health and physiotherapy. The new building is part of a planned investment of over £130 million by the University of Salford in campus buildings and facilities over the next five years. Dean of the Faculty of Health and Social Care, Rona Howard, said the building represented the pioneering spirit of Mary Seacole.
Largely ignored by the history books, Seacole rose to international fame in 2004 when she was voted the Greatest Black Briton in an online poll. In January this year – the bicentenary of her birth – the only known portrait of her was discovered and exhibited in the National Portrait Gallery. She is among 10 Britons being honoured in a new series of Royal Mail stamps, which will commemorate the National Portrait Gallery’s 150th anniversary.
Meanwhile, the Mary Seacole Memorial Statue Appeal is seeking to raise £475,000 to erect a monument to honour her life and work.
