In Black History Month, give Samuel Coleridge-Taylor his due

‘By the time he died aged 37, just two years older than Mozart, he and his family had received no royalties from The Song of Hiawatha.’ Samuel Coleridge-Taylor. Photograph: Hulton Archive/Getty

In Black History Month, we should also remember Samuel Coleridge‑Taylor, the great composer who is buried in Bandon Hill cemetery, Wallington (UK Black History Month kicks off aiming to ‘reclaim narratives’, 1 October).

The inscription on his headstone includes four bars of music from The Song of Hiawatha and a tribute: “Too young to die: his great simplicity, his happy courage in an alien world, his gentleness, made all that knew him love him,” from his friend, the poet Alfred Noyes.