A BUST of a heroine of the Crimean War voted the Greatest Black Briton has sold at auction for more than 100 times its guide price.
Originally estimated to fetch between £700 and £1000, auctioneers were "flabbergasted" when the bust of the Scottish-Jamaican nurse Mary Seacole sold for £101,000.
Seacole, who rivalled Florence Nightingale for her feats in the war, was born in 1805 to a Scottish soldier and Jamaican mother.
She later went to England and when she heard of the plight of the soldiers in the Crimea volunteered to help. However, she was turned down.
Undeterred, Seacole funded her own journey and remained in the Crimea until 1856.
When she returned to England destitute, commanders in the Crimea raised money for the nurse, who was awarded the British Crimean medal, the Turkish Medjidie and the French Legion of Honour.
She died in 1881 and was voted Greatest Black Briton in an online poll in 2004.
READ MORE: NHS Louisa Jordan: All about the First World War nurse
The 30cm-high terracotta half bust, in which Seacole wears her war medals and a row of pearls, was modelled by the Victorian artist Count Gleichen in 1871.
It was sold at Dominic Winter Auctioneers in South Cerney, Gloucestershire.
Chris Albury, from that auction house, said: "Needless to say, we are in shock. We had thought it might go over £20,000 due to the intense interest but we are as flabbergasted as the vendor.
"The news of where it is going next and its eventual home is icing on the cake to a wonderful story."
The winning bidder is Billy Peterson, of the film company Racing Green Pictures, which plans to make a film of Seacole's life.
After filming, it will be given to the Mary Seacole Trust and housed at the Florence Nightingale Museum.
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