St Mary’s Terrace, London W2
Mary turns out to be a surprise find on my way to my first ‘official’ statue…
Part of three steel portraits, Mary stands with scientist Alan Turing and author Michael Bond (Paddington Bear creator) and was voted for by local people as part of Sustrans’ Portrait Bench 2007 campaign https://www.sustrans.org.uk/. Assuming Sustrans has more portraits, I could be visiting much more than the original 128 women statues listed by the UK Public Statues of Women list https://pssauk.org/women/.
Born in 1805, Mary was a business woman who went on to study diseases and nursed in various countries. At the outbreak of the Crimean war, she was refused a place in the effort to care for the wounded, so she paid her own way and helped first hand on the battlefields. She returned destitute and died relatively unknown to those outside of Crimean war. Until recently, history has largely ignored her work, particularly in the light of Florence Nightingale whose military hospital was stationed hundreds of miles from the frontline. https://www.maryseacoletrust.org.uk/
Mary is also honoured with another statue in London, but more of that later.
WomenstatuesUK 