Pearl Priscilla Prescod (28 May 1920 – 25 June 1966) was a

Tobagonian Tobago, officially the Ward of Tobago, is an island and ward within the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago. It is located northeast of the larger island of Trinidad and about off the northeastern coast of Venezuela. It lies to the southeast ...

actress and singer. She was one of the earliest Caribbean entertainers to appear on British television and was the first Black woman to appear with London's

National Theatre Company The National Theatre (NT), officially the Royal National Theatre and sometimes referred to in international contexts as the National Theatre of Great Britain, is a performing arts venue and associated theatre company located in London, England, ...

. Prescod arrived in Britain in the early 1950s and resided in

Notting Hill Notting Hill is a district of West London, England, in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. Notting Hill is known for being a wikt:cosmopolitan, cosmopolitan and multiculturalism, multicultural neighbourhood, hosting the annual Notting ...

, London. During her time in Britain, she was cast in numerous television roles and theatre productions, and was active in the anti-racism struggle in London in the late 1950s and early '60s. With her close friend, journalist and activist

Claudia Jones Claudia Vera Jones (; 21 February 1915 – 24 December 1964) was a Trinidad and Tobago-born journalist and activist. As a child, she migrated with her family to the United States, where she became a Communist political activist, feminist and bla ...

, Prescod helped co-ordinate London's first "Caribbean Carnival" event, which took place in

St Pancras Town Hall Camden Town Hall, known as St Pancras Town Hall until 1965, is the meeting place of Camden London Borough Council. The main entrance is in Judd Street with its northern elevation extending along Euston Road, opposite the main front of St Pancra ...

in January 1959, and is considered a precursor of the

Notting Hill Carnival The Notting Hill Carnival is an annual Caribbean Carnival event that has taken place in London since 1966

Career

Pearl Prescod was a trained classical singer and had aspirations to pursue a classical music education in England. She arrived in Britain in the early 1950s after winning a musical scholarship to

Guildhall School of Music The Guildhall School of Music and Drama is a music and drama school located in the City of London, England. Established in 1880, the school offers undergraduate and postgraduate training in all aspects of classical music and jazz along with dram ...

. In 1954, Prescod was cast in

Barry Reckord Barrington John Reckord (19 November 1926 – 20 December 2011), known as Barry Reckord, was a Jamaican playwright, one of the earliest Caribbean writers to make a contribution to theatre in Britain. His brother was the actor and director Lloyd ...

's first play ''Flesh to a Tiger'' (previously called ''Della)''. The play also starred

Cleo Laine Dame Cleo Laine, Lady Dankworth (born Clementine Dinah Hitching; 28 October 1927) is an English singer and actress known for her scat singing. She is the widow of jazz composer and musician Sir John Dankworth and the mother of bassist Alec D ...

Nadia Cattouse Nadia Evadne Cattouse (2 November 1924 – 29 October 2024) was a British actress and singer. She began her onscreen acting career in 1954 and was best known for her roles in many British television programmes, including ''Angels'', ''Play for ...

and

Lloyd Reckord Lloyd Reckord (26 May 1929 – 8 July 2015) was a Jamaican actor, film maker, and stage director who lived in England for some years. Reckord appeared in 1958 in a West End production of '' Hot Summer Night'', which as an ITV adaptation broadc ...

. In 1955, the secretary of the

West India Committee The West India Committee is a British-based organisation promoting ties and trade with the Caribbean. It operates as a UK-registered charity and NGO (non-governmental organisation) "whose object is to promote the interests of agriculture, manufactu ...

in London helped Prescod secure a job as a switchboard operator in his office and an audition at the

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

. She successfully procured a number of BBC contracts and landed many television roles and plays over the years. Prescod was part of a West Indian singing group called The New World Singers and was the leader of the sopranos in the choir. The others were Patricia Williams (St Vincent), Bonica Fletcher (Jamaica) and Joyce Jacobs (British Guiana). Impressed with hearing a group of West Indian singers, conductor and composer Avril Coleridge-Taylor formed the choir. In 1959, Sylvia Wynter's play ''Under The Sun'' was re-broadcast by the BBC. Prescod had a part in the play, along with Nadia Cattouse,

Andrew Salkey Andrew Salkey (30 January 1928 – 28 April 1995) was a Jamaican novelist, poet, children's books writer and journalist of Jamaican and Panamanian origin. He was born in Panama but was raised in Jamaica, moving to Britain in the 1952 to pursu ...

, Sheila Clarke, Gordon Woolford and Sylvia Wynter. During her stage career, Prescod was a member of London's

, then based at the

Old Vic Old or OLD may refer to: Places *Old, Baranya, Hungary *Old, Northamptonshire, England *Old Street station, a railway and tube station in London (station code OLD) *OLD, IATA code for Old Town Municipal Airport and Seaplane Base, Old Town, Mai ...

, and was cast as

Tituba Tituba () was an enslaved Native American woman who was one of the first to be accused of witchcraft during the Salem witch trials of 1692–1693. She was enslaved by Samuel Parris, the minister of Salem Village, in the Province of Massachusett ...

in the 1965 production of ''

The Crucible ''The Crucible'' is a 1953 play by the American playwright Arthur Miller. It is a dramatized and partially fictionalized story of the Salem witch trials that took place in the Province of Massachusetts Bay from 1692 to 1693. Miller wrote ...

''. She received wide praise for her performance.

Activism

Prescod's contributions to the struggle for racial equality in Britain was recognised. She played an active role alongside

, and was involved in organising the

March on Washington The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom (commonly known as the March on Washington or the Great March on Washington) was held in Washington, D.C., on August 28, 1963. The purpose of the march was to advocate for the civil and economic rig ...

solidarity demonstration in London on 31 August 1963. Prescod was among the Black artistes in England who supported Claudia Jones's appeals for funds for the ''

West Indian Gazette ''West Indian Gazette'' (''WIG'') was a newspaper founded in March 1958 in Brixton, London, England, by Trinidadian communist & black nationalist activist Claudia Jones (1915–1964). The title as displayed on its masthead was subsequently expand ...

'' by organising and performing at fundraising concerts. When Jones died in 1964, Prescod sung "Lift Up Your Voice and Sing" at the funeral.

Death

Prescod died on 25 June 1966 from a brain hemorrhage in

Kensington Kensington is an area of London in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, around west of Central London. The district's commercial heart is Kensington High Street, running on an east–west axis. The north-east is taken up by Kensingt ...

, London, and was survived by her son Colin Prescod, a sociologist and trustee of the Friends of the Huntley Archives at LMA.

Legacy

Prescod is the subject of a chapter written by Obi B. Egbuna, the Nigerian-born novelist, playwright and political activist, in his non-fiction work titled ''Black Candle at Christmas''. In 2022, the

Institute of Race Relations The Institute of Race Relations (IRR) is a think tank based in the United Kingdom. It was formed in 1958 in order to publish research on race relations worldwide, and in 1972 was transformed into an "anti-racist think tank". Proposed by ''Sund ...

' Black History Collection produced a biographical text dedicated to charting Prescod's life. A review of ''Pearl Prescod: A Black Life Lived Large'' in ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'' described the educational pamphlet as "part of an endeavour to shine a light on the overlooked stories of this generation of Caribbean artists and intellectuals", adding: "There is so much to unearth in the case of Prescod's short but glittering life and work." The IRR project co-ordinator Anya Edmond-Pettitt notes that Prescod's story may have been hitherto forgotten because it differs from the prevailing narrative about the so-called "

Windrush generation British African-Caribbean people or British Afro-Caribbean people are an ethnic group in the United Kingdom. They are British citizens or residents of recent Caribbean heritage who further trace much of their ancestry to West and Central Africa. ...

": "It's not to say that he Windrushnarrative isn't true or important but it's not the only story. There were people who came from the Caribbean who did not become bus drivers, hospital porters and nurses. There's a strange blindspot in that this is the only story we have of colonial migration to this country from the Caribbean." Colin Prescod situates his mother's legacy within that of the wider community of performing artists and intellectuals who came from the West Indies/Caribbean to Britain, describing the biographical pamphlet as an "archival teaser" since there are many such life stories yet to be formally archived (including, as he observes, those of

, Earl Cameron and

Errol John Errol John (20 December 1924 – 10 July 1988) was a Trinidad and Tobago actor and playwright who emigrated to the United Kingdom in 1951. Biography Early years in Trinidad John was born in Port of Spain, Trinidad, on 20 December 1924, the ...

): "This little piece of history ... is part and parcel of the stir caused by 'the West Indian generation' as the late

George Lamming George William Lamming OCC (8 June 19274 June 2022) was a Barbadian novelist, essayist, and poet. He first won critical acclaim for '' In the Castle of My Skin'', his 1953 debut novel. He also held academic posts, including as a distinguished ...

called them – the generation who came out of militant anti-colonial political cultures to see off Empire and questioned the racist-Imperialism at the core of Great Britain’s colonial success story."

Filmography

References

External links

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"'I would have liked her to see the change happening right now': the theater star track Pearl Prescod2
''Africa News Today'' (YouTube), June 2022. {{DEFAULTSORT:Prescod, Pearl 1920 births 1966 deaths 20th-century Black British women singers 20th-century British women singers 20th-century Trinidad and Tobago actors 20th-century Trinidad and Tobago actresses 20th-century Trinidad and Tobago singers 20th-century Trinidad and Tobago women singers Actors from the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea Alumni of the Guildhall School of Music and Drama Black British activists Black British actresses Expatriate actresses in the United Kingdom People from Notting Hill Trinidad and Tobago activists Trinidad and Tobago expatriates in the United Kingdom Trinidad and Tobago stage actresses Trinidad and Tobago television actresses