Florence Nightingale and Mary Seacole were both nurses during the Crimean War. Florence Nightingales ambition to become a nurse was not an easy one to achieve. Mary Seacole originated from Jamaica and travelled to the Crimea without assistance from the British government. Travel with them to the Crimean War. See the changes they implemented, to improve the lives of wounded soldiers. The life of a working woman in 1800, was a difficult one.