Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (1875-1912)

Samuel Coleridge-Taylor born 15th August 1875 was a black, English composer who achieved such success he was described by a visiting New York critic as the "black Mahler".

He was born in Holborn, London son of an English mother, Alice Hare Martin and Daniel Peter Hughes Taylor, from Sierra Leone. He was named after the poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge; the hyphen in his surname was initially a typographical error, which he then adopted for his professional name.

His father returned to Africa apparently feeling that his career as a surgeon was blocked because he was black. He was brought up in Croydon by Alice and her adopted parents, who were a highly musical family but they corresponded regularly with his father who helped promote Samuel's reputation in Sierra-Leone. He studied at the Royal College of Music under Stanford (who conducted the first performance of Hiawatha's Wedding Feast,) and later taught and conducted the orchestra at the Croydon Conservatoire. He married Jessie Walmisley, a fellow student of his at the RCM, in 1899 despite her parents' objection to his mixed race parentage. By her he had a son, Hiawatha (1900-1980) and a daughter, Avril, born Gwendolyn (1903-1998).

Coleridge-Taylor was a shy man in general life but effective in communicating when conducting. He was very generous and gave away far too much money, especially to black people down on their luck, bearing in mind that composers were not handsomely paid for their efforts and often sold the rights to works outright, thereby missing out on royalties which went to publishers instead.

He was only 37 when he died of overwork and pneumonia on 1 September 1912. His wife was left almost penniless but King George V granted her a pension of £100 a year, evidence of the composer's high standing in society. A memorial concert was held later in 1912 at the Royal Albert Hall.