Mary Jane Seacole (23 November 1805 – 14 May 1881), née Grant,[3][4] was a Jamaican-born woman of Scottish and Creole descent who set up a "British Hotel" behind the lines during the Crimean War, which she described as "a mess-table and comfortable quarters for sick and convalescent officers," and provided succour for wounded servicemen on the battlefield.[4] She was posthumously awarded the Jamaican Order of Merit in 1991. In 2004 she was voted the greatest black Briton