(2009-01-17)

Last year artists from around the world were invited to put forward ideas for the design a prestigious memorial to Mary Seacole. The shortlist of artists selected to submit proposals are:

Maurice Blik
Georgia Boyd Russell
Joy Gregory
Martin Jennings
Kenness George Kelly (Fowokan)
Etienne Milner
Susan Stockwell
Bill Woodrow

The artist will now submit designs for the memorial and the Artist Selection Panel will make the final choice in the spring. The panel is chaired by Baroness Amos and includes former culture secretary Lord Smith of Finsbury and Steve McGuire from Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust

Mary Seacole, self-taught nurse and businesswoman, made her way to the Crimea during the war and became a heroine to the troops and their officers with her rest, refreshment and nursing post. She also went on to the battlefield and treated the wounded of both. sides. Her grave in northwest London has been refurbished, she was voted the Greatest Black Briton of all time four years ago and has appeared in a series of Great Briton stamps

The £500,000 memorial will sit in the grounds of St Thomas’ Hospital in Central London, which is already home to the Florence Nightingale Museum.