Artists from around the world are being invited to design a prestigious memorial to Mary Seacole, the Jamaican Crimean War heroine, on a Central London site. The £500,000 memorial is to be built at St Thomas’ Hospital, already home to the Florence Nightingale Museum.

The brief for the memorial includes that it should reflect the scale and stature of Seacole’s achievements; be contemporary in design and an inspiration to the nursing profession; act as a reminder of the importance of the nursing profession; contain a visual representation of Seacole and possibly include an interactive element.

Anyone interested in the project is being invited to make contact with the Davidson Arts Partnership. Philomena Davidson, the former president of the Royal Society of British Sculptors, is organising the selection panel.

Ms Davidson said it was hoped that a shortlist of up to half a dozen artists would be announced by autumn with an exhibition of visual representations of the ideas staged in a prime Central London location at the beginning of next year. The Mary Seacole Memorial Appeal was boosted earlier this year when a fundraising dinner at City Hall, London raised about £7,000.

Seacole, a self-taught nurse and businesswoman, made her way to the Crimea during the war and became a heroine to the troops and their officers with her rest, refreshment and nursing post. She also went on to the battlefield and treated the wounded of both sides. Her grave in northwest London has been refurbished, she was voted the Greatest Black Briton of all time four years ago and has appeared in a series of Great Briton stamps.

The deadline for expressions of interest is July 21 and for images of work via CD or PDF, July 31.

For more information, please contact: The Davidson Arts Partnership, 34 Quainton Street, London NW10 0BE, 020-8900 0880, phil@davidsonarts.com