Samuel Coleridge-Taylor

Not to be confused with Samuel Taylor Coleridge.

Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (1875-1912) was a British composer. He was born in London, the illegitimate son of an Englishwoman and a doctor from Sierra Leone. His mother had him baptized with the names Samuel Coleridge, after the poet, and gave him his father's surname Taylor. He added the hyphen for his pen-name.

He encountered some racial prejudice, but also support from Edward Elgar and others.

His best-known work is Hiawatha's Wedding Feast, setting words by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

His daughter Avril, also a composer, lived for many years in South Africa, until the authorities discovered her racial background.