Public given the chance find out more about nursing icon at free event

Published: 02 October 2012

The Royal College of Nursing (RCN), together with the University of Wolverhampton, is giving the public the opportunity to find out more about Mary Seacole, an icon of nursing and one of the greatest Black Britons, as part of its work to celebrate Black History Month.

The Winifred Raphael Memorial Lecture, which is free and open to the public, will see Professor Elizabeth Anionwu CBE, Emeritus Professor of Nursing at the University of West London and a Fellow of the Royal College of Nursing, talk about the impact Mary Seacole has had on her own life and career.

Born Mary Grant in 1805 to a free black Jamaican, Mary Seacole was taught Creole medicine by her mother, who ran a boarding house in Kingston, where many residents were disabled European servicemen afflicted with common ailments such as yellow fever.

This early education was the catalyst for Mary, who, years later during the Crimean War, used her talents to support British soldiers who fondly called her 'Mother Seacole'.

Mary was honoured in her lifetime, but after her death in 1881 she was forgotten for almost a century and the RCN is backing an initiative to fund a memorial and statue in London to honour Mary.

Professor Anionwu is also the vice-chairperson of the Mary Seacole Memorial Statue Appeal and will talk about the fund-raising appeal.

The lecture starts at 5.30pm on Wednesday 17 October in Lecture Theatre 002 of the MH Building on the University of Wolverhampton’s City Campus North in Nursery Street, Wolverhampton.

For more details, and to reserve a seat at the lecture, please email sheila.allport@wlv.ac.uk.

The Winifred Raphael Memorial Lecture
Winifred Raphael was a pioneering industrial psychologist, and The Winifred Raphael Memorial Lecture is one of the main events in the RCN Research Society's calendar.

Thanks to Mrs Raphael's family, who launched the memorial fund, and to all those involved since, the lecture is an event which draws together a variety of nurses from different nursing and geographical areas.

From 1981 to 1993, the annual lecture took place in London. After a break of several years, it was reinstated as an evening lecture at RCN Congress from 2001 to 2006. Since then, the lecture has been hosted by the regional groups of the RCN Research Society.