Monument to Jeanne Mance, MontrealJean Gagnon, 2011. CC BY-SA 3.0. Wikimedia Commons. Image source
Jeanne Mance cares for the sick in early Montreal
1642 to 1673 · Jeanne Mance (1606 to 1673)
Jeanne Mance was born in Langres, France, in 1606. She cared for sick and injured people during wars and epidemics there.
In 1641 she sailed to New France with a small group of settlers, and in 1642 they founded Ville-Marie, the settlement that became Montreal. Mance was in charge of caring for the sick. She treated settlers and Indigenous people, at first in a small space inside the fort.
By 1645 a proper hospital, the Hôtel-Dieu, had been built. Mance also managed its money and supplies and travelled back to France more than once to raise funds that kept the settlement alive.
She ran the hospital for many years and later brought nursing sisters from France to help. She died in Montreal in 1673.
In 2012 the City of Montreal officially recognized Jeanne Mance as a co-founder of the city. Her work is an early Canadian example of caring for people's daily needs with skill and respect.
Mary Seacole, about 1869Albert Charles Challen, about 1869. Public domain. Wikimedia Commons. Image source
Mary Seacole's British Hotel
1855 to 1857 · Mary Seacole (1805 to 1881)
Mary Seacole was born in Kingston, Jamaica, in 1805. Her mother ran a boarding house and treated sick people with traditional remedies, and Mary learned from her. She later nursed people through cholera and yellow fever outbreaks.
When the Crimean War began, Seacole travelled to London and offered to help. She was turned down. So she paid her own way to the war.
In 1855, with a business partner, she opened the British Hotel near Balaclava. It sold meals and supplies to officers, and from it she cared for sick and wounded soldiers. She was known for bringing food, tea and comfort to men near the front lines.
After the war she was nearly bankrupt. In 1857 she published her life story, Wonderful Adventures of Mrs Seacole in Many Lands, and supporters held a fundraising festival for her.
In 2016 a statue of Mary Seacole was unveiled at St Thomas' Hospital in London. Her focus on food, comfort and kindness is at the heart of personal support work.
