Samuel Coleridge-Taylor

Samuel Taylor-Coleridge was born in Holborn, London in 1875. His mother was English and his father was a Sierra-Leonian physician. His mother had her birth registered in Dover, and later moved to London. She gave birth to him in Holborn, London.

His name was chosen by his mother after the founder of the Romantic Movement in poetry.
 

His maternal family were very musically oriented, and after being taught the violin by his grandfather he became a child musical prodigy.

At the age of 15, he began learning at the Royal College of Music and picked up composition as his favourite musical format. 

He grew up to become adored by many music lovers, working as the conductor for the main choir in Rochester Cathedral. 

In 1899, he married fellow Royal College of Music student, Jessie Sarah Fleetwood Walmisley, and they had three children together.

 The First Pan-African Congress was held in London in 1900. This marked the beginning of a powerful decade for Black resistance against forms of racial oppression and strong unity between Black people all over the world. 

He is believed to have been the youngest delegate to the 1900 Congress.  At the time of the Congress, Pan-Africanism was a concept practised mainly by African American individuals of a high social class, such as W.E.B Du Bois, the ‘grandfather’ of Pan-Africanism.

He was very engaged with African American community events and toured America three times throughout the early years of the 20th century.

But his bright career was suddenly cut short on the 28th of August, 1912, when he collapsed at West Croydon station and died of acute pneumonia days later at the age of 37.

Many of his compositions were recorded and are available to listen to today.