Hiawatha Bryan Coleridge-Taylor (15 October 1900 20 January 1980) was an English conductor, music publisher and doctor, the son of the composer Samuel Coleridge Taylor. Born in Croydon, he was named after the Longfellow poem that his father set as The Song of Hiawatha between 1898 and 1900, which had made him globally famous.Charles Kay. 'The Marriage of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor and Jessie Walmisley', Black Music Research Journal, Vol. 21, No. 2, Autumn 2001, pp. 172-174 His younger sister was Avril Coleridge-Taylor. From November 1917 he served as a driver in the French Red Cross at the age of 17.IWM. Lives of the First World War In the 1921 census he was listed as a music student.'Samuel Coleridge-Taylor: A trailblazing composer', National Archives In December 1925 he married the pianist (Sarah) Kathleen Markwell (1896–1973).Kathleen Markwell obituary, The Musical Times, Vol. 115, No. 1572 (February 1974), p. 148 She had been his accompanist.'H. Coleridge Taylor Secretly Married', New York Times, 22 December, 1925, p. 19Kathleen Markwell obituary, RCM Magazine, Vol. 70/1 (1974), p.25 In the late 1930s they were living at Rodmell in East Sussex, where a neighbour was the sculptor Marjorie Drawbell.'Marjorie Drawbell (1903-2000)' A History of British Animation
Hiawatha adapted, edited and conducted the ballet music for the 1924 epic staging of The Song of Hiawatha at the Royal Albert Hall on 19 May 1924, as produced by impresario T. C. Fairbairn.London Picture Archive: Record No. 301849 These epic stagings were highly popular, and continued on an annual basis until 1939.'Hiawatha at the Royal Albert Hall (1924-1939)', Museum of Music History, September 2012Tom Service. 'From sensation to spectacular, to silence: the strange history of Coleridge-Taylor’s Song of Hiawatha', The Guardian, 12 August, 2026
In 1938 Hiawatha took legal action against his father's publisher Novello in a bid to secure unpaid royalties generated by his father's music. He won the case, but Novello appealed and the verdict was overturned.Michael Hurd. Vincent Novello - and Company (1981), p. 117 The 1939 Census lists Hiawatha's occupation as copyright music agent.'Coleridge-Taylor; Hiawatha Brian', Royal Albert Hall records
He later worked as a general practitioner in the Wimbledon area,Chris Dench. 'Samuel/Coleridge-Taylor/Perkinson', 21 July, 2021 where he lived next door to St Mary's Church. There is a commemorative bench in the churchyard. He died in Merton, aged 79.Obituary, The Musical Times, Vol. 121, No. 1646, April 1980, p. 267
References