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Seacole sculpture design revealed
Scale model of Martin Jennings Mary Seacole statue
Mary Seacole treated soldiers on the battlefield often under fire
The design for a memorial statue dedicated to nurse and Crimean War heroine Mary Seacole has been chosen.
Artist Martin Jennings created the winning sculpture, which will stand in the grounds of St Thomas' Hospital in central London.
In 2004, the Jamaican-born woman was voted the greatest Black Briton of all time.
The Mary Seacole Memorial Statue Appeal was set up to create a permanent reminder of the 19th Century nurse.
In 1854, Seacole approached the War Office asking to be sent as an army nurse to the Crimea where there was known to be poor medical facilities for wounded soldiers.
Mother Seacole
She was refused but funded her own trip to the Crimea where she established the British Hotel near Balaclava to provide comfortable quarters for sick and convalescent officers.
She also visited the battlefield, sometimes under fire, to nurse the wounded, and became known as "Mother Seacole".
Baroness Amos, the chair of the Mary Seacole Memorial Artist Selection Panel, said she richly deserves to be recognised.
"People in - not just the black community, but in ethnic minority communities generally - will feel very pleased because it's like a real recognition of the contribution that we have made to Britain's history.
"Britain's history has been diverse for generations and we need to recognise and understand that."
Seacole, who rivalled Florence Nightingale for her feats in the Crimean War, was the daughter of a Scottish soldier and Jamaican mother.
Mr Jennings said: "She'll be facing Big Ben and marching towards the river - a wind, as it were, coming off the river - representing in some ways perhaps the wind of the resistance that she had to push against constantly in order to achieve what she wanted to achieve with her vocation.
"This is a wonderful location.
BBC NEWS
<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body"><span style="font-style: italic">Mary Seacole was born in Kingston, Jamaica in 1805. Her father was a Scottish soldier, and <span style="font-weight: bold">her mother was a practitioner of traditional Jamaican medicine</span>. 
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