Mary Seacole, like Florence Nightingale, worked in the Crimea. Unlike Florence Nightingale, she rarely gets much credit for it.
She was born in Jamaica, and like her mother before her - became a Doctress (a kind of Caribbean nurse on the slave plantations and amongst the military in the West Indies). And even though the British authorities refused to employ her, she made her own way to the front line.
As a rediscovered portrait in oils of Mary Seacole goes on display at the National Portrait Gallery, Woman's Hour takes a look at the work of an unsung heroine
