Bandon Hill Cemetary

Although there was a Roman cemetery on the site, as evidenced by the discovery in the 1970s of cinerary urns from the 2nd and 3rd centuries, the Bandon Hill Cemetery is only 100 years old. Elizabeth Annie Luck, who died on 7 March 1900 (L379), was its first resident.

Not many years later, the black composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor died of acute pneumonia aged only 37. Born in Holborn in 1875 to an English mother and a doctor from Sierra Leone, he achieved fame when only 22-23 with his composition 'Hiawatha's Wedding Feast' based on Longfellow's poem. This music was described by the Royal College of Music as 'one of the most remarkable events in English musical history'. At the time, it was said to be as popular as Handel's 'Messiah'.

 

But, while Coleridge-Taylor has been largely forgotten as a composer, he is still remembered with reverence for his championing of black people and music, and particularly his love of black folk music. He went to the United States, where he was one of the few black people to be received by President Roosevelt.