A PORTRAIT of the nurse Mary Seacole, recently named the greatest black Briton, has been discovered more than 100 years after her death.

Miss Seacole was known as a Florence Nightingale figure who helped tend to sick and wounded British troops in the battlefields of the Crimean War.

The daughter of a Scottish soldier and Jamaican mother, she paid her own way to the front where she was known as Mother Seacole.

The oil painting of the Jamaican-born nurse lay unseen for years, hidden from view as it was being used to back a framed print.

It was only found by a dealer who was looking at the back of the frame.

After being approached by another dealer, historian Helen Rappaport recognised the identity of the sitter, bought the portrait and took it to the National Portrait Gallery for examination.

Experts believe the details of Miss Seacole's dress and the portrait's pigments show the painting is genuine.

Seacole was born in 1805 in Jamaica. She was awarded a Crimean medal, and in 1857 published her autobiography, The Wonderful Adventures of Mary Seacole in Many Lands. Seacole died in 1881, and is buried in St Mary's Catholic Cemetery, Kensal.