Pearl Prescod

{{Infobox person

| name = Pearl Prescod

| birth_name = Pearl Priscilla Prescod

| birth_date = 28 May 1920

| birth_place = Tobago, Trinidad and Tobago

| death_date = {{death date and age|25 June 1966|28 May 1920|df=y}}

| death_place = Kensington, London, England

| occupation = Actress and singer

| years_active = 1954–1966

| children = Colin Prescod

}}

Pearl Priscilla Prescod (28 May 1920 – 25 June 1966){{cite web |title=Kingston Gleaner Newspaper Archives, June 29, 1966, p. 11 |url=https://newspaperarchive.com/kingston-gleaner-jun-29-1966-p-11/ |website=NewspaperArchive.com |access-date=23 June 2020 |page=11 |date=29 June 1966}}{{Cite book|publisher=Commonwealth Institute (Great Britain)|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bt7qgvZHbZcC&q=pearl+prescod|title=Annual Report|date=1966}}{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VUXXY3_LQ-gC&q=pearl+prescod|title=Chronicle|volume=81|publisher=West India Committee |date=1966}} was a Tobagonian 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.{{Cite web|title=Kingston Gleaner Newspaper Archives {{!}} Feb 04, 1966, p. 6|url=https://newspaperarchive.com/kingston-gleaner-feb-04-1966-p-6/|access-date=23 June 2020|website=newspaperarchive.com|date=4 February 1966 }}

Prescod arrived in Britain in the early 1950s and resided in Notting Hill, London.{{Cite web|title=The 'rebel' history of the Grove |first=Colin|last=Prescod|publisher= Institute of Race Relations|url=http://www.irr.org.uk/news/the-rebel-history-of-the-grove/|date=6 June 2019|access-date=22 June 2020}} 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.{{Cite book|editor-first=Robin D. G. |editor-last=Kelley|editor2=Stephen Tuck|editor-link=Robin D. G. Kelley|title=The Other Special Relationship: Race, Rights, and Riots in Britain and the United States|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan|year=2015|isbn=978-1137500373|location=United States}} With her close friend, journalist and activist Claudia Jones, Prescod helped co-ordinate London's first "Caribbean Carnival" event,{{Cite book|last=Bourne|first=Stephen|author-link=Stephen Bourne (writer)|title=Black in the British Frame: The Black Experience in British Film and Television|publisher=Continuum International Publishing Group Ltd.|year=2001|isbn=0826455395}} which took place in St Pancras Town Hall in January 1959,{{cite book |last1=Bruley |first1=Sue |title=Women in Britain since 1900 |date=1999 |publisher=Macmillan International Higher Education |isbn=978-1-349-27743-8 |page=144 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BE9dDwAAQBAJ&dq=%22Pearl+Prescod%22+grave&pg=PA144}} and is considered a precursor of the Notting Hill Carnival.{{cite journal|url=https://www.caribbean-beat.com/issue-100/notting-hill-carnival-mas-and-mother-country#axzz6QMtUziWJ|title=Notting Hill Carnival: Mas and the mother country|first=Ray|last=Funk|journal=Caribbean Beat|issue=100 |date=November–December 2009|access-date=25 June 2020}}

Career

Pearl Prescod was a trained classical singer{{Cite web|title=At home: Colin Prescod {{!}} Financial Times|url=https://www.ft.com/content/a6fbad4a-d4df-11e1-b476-00144feabdc0|date=27 July 2012|access-date=23 June 2020|website=www.ft.com}} and had aspirations to pursue a classical music education in England.{{Cite book|last=Bidnall|first=Amanda|title=The West Indian Generation: Remaking British Culture in London, 1945–1965|publisher=Liverpool University Press|year=2017|isbn=9781786940032|location=Liverpool}} She arrived in Britain in the early 1950s after winning a musical scholarship to Guildhall School of Music.

In 1954, Prescod was cast in Barry Reckord's first play Flesh to a Tiger (previously called Della).{{Cite news|last=Busby|first=Margaret|author-link=Margaret Busby|date=16 January 2012|title=Barry Reckord obituary|work=The Guardian|url=https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2012/jan/16/barry-reckord|access-date=22 June 2020|issn=0261-3077}}{{Cite web|title=Photograph of Flesh to a Tiger by Barry Reckord (1958 premiere)|url=https://www.bl.uk/collection-items/photograph-of-flesh-to-a-tiger-by-barry-reckord-1958-premiere|access-date=25 June 2020|website=The British Library}} The play also starred Cleo Laine, Nadia Cattouse and Lloyd Reckord.

In 1955, the secretary of the West India Committee in London helped Prescod secure a job as a switchboard operator in his office and an audition at the BBC. 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).{{Cite web|title=Kingston Gleaner Newspaper Archives {{!}} June 23, 1956, p. 10|url=https://newspaperarchive.com/kingston-gleaner-jun-23-1956-p-10/|access-date=23 June 2020|website=newspaperarchive.com|date=23 June 1956 }} 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, Sheila Clarke, Gordon Woolford and Sylvia Wynter.{{Cite web|title=Kingston Gleaner Newspaper Archives {{!}} Jul 04, 1959, p. 18|url=https://newspaperarchive.com/kingston-gleaner-jul-04-1959-p-18/|access-date=23 June 2020|website=newspaperarchive.com|date=4 July 1959 |language=en}}

During her stage career, Prescod was a member of London's National Theatre Company,{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FWDRlu05VfAC&dq=Pearl+Prescod%3A&pg=PP4|last=Jones|first=Glyn|title=No Official Umbrella|publisher=DCG Publications|year=2008|isbn=978-9609841801|location=Greece|page=104}} then based at the Old Vic, and was cast as Tituba in the 1965 production of The Crucible.{{Cite news|date=19 October 2013|title=The National Theatre at 50 – in pictures|work=The Guardian|url=https://www.theguardian.com/stage/gallery/2013/oct/20/national-theatre-50-chris-arthur-photographs|access-date=22 June 2020|issn=0261-3077}} She received wide praise for her performance.

Activism

Prescod's contributions to the struggle for racial equality in Britain was recognised.{{Cite web|title=Kingston Gleaner Newspaper Archives {{!}} Jul 26, 1966, p. 3|url=https://newspaperarchive.com/kingston-gleaner-jul-26-1966-p-3/|access-date=23 June 2020|website=newspaperarchive.com|date=26 July 1966 }} She played an active role alongside Claudia Jones,{{Cite web|date=29 August 2008|title=White riot: The week Notting Hill exploded|url=http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/white-riot-the-week-notting-hill-exploded-912105.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220525/http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/white-riot-the-week-notting-hill-exploded-912105.html |archive-date=25 May 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live|first=Mark|last=Olden|access-date=23 June 2020|website=The Independent}} and was involved in organising the March on Washington 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 by organising and performing at fundraising concerts.{{Cite book|last=Johnson|first=Buzz|title=I Think of My Mother. Notes on the Life and Times of Claudia Jones|publisher=Karia Press|year=1985|isbn=9780946918027|location=London}} 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, London, and was survived by her son Colin Prescod,{{Cite web|title=How a Trinidadian Communist Invented London's Biggest Party|first=Charlie |last=Brinkhurst-Cuff|date=18 February 2021|website=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/18/world/europe/notting-hill-carnival-claudia-jones.html}} a sociologist and trustee of the Friends of the Huntley Archives at LMA.{{Cite web|title=About Us|url=https://fhalma.org/about-us/|access-date=23 June 2020|website=FHALMA - Friends of the Huntley Archives at LMA|language=en-GB}}

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.{{Cite book|last=Egbuna|first=Obi B.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-GXRAAAAMAAJ&q=sweaters|title=Black Candle for Christmas|date=1980|publisher=Fourth Dimension|isbn=978-978-156-109-2}}

In 2022, the Institute of Race Relations' Black History Collection produced a biographical text dedicated to charting Prescod's life.{{cite press release|url= https://irr.org.uk/article/pearl-prescod-a-black-life-lived-large/|title=Pearl Prescod: A Black life lived large|publisher=Institute of Race Relations|date=21 June 2022|access-date=4 July 2022}} A review of Pearl Prescod: A Black Life Lived Large in The Guardian 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."{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2022/jun/23/theatre-star-pearl-prescod|title='I wish she could have seen the change happening right now': trailblazing theatre star Pearl Prescod|first=Arifa|last=Akbar|newspaper=The Guardian|date=23 June 2022}} 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": "It's not to say that [the Windrush] narrative 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,{{cite web|url=https://www.brh.org.uk/site/events/a-black-life-lived-large-pearl-prescod-1920-1966-caribbean-british-actor-singer-activist/|title='A Black life lived large' – Pearl Prescod, 1920–1966, Caribbean/British actor, singer, activist|website=Events {{!}} Bristol Radical History Festival|publisher=Bristol Radical History Group|date=28 April 2022|access-date=4 July 2022}} 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 Nadia Cattouse, Earl Cameron and Errol John): "This little piece of history ... is part and parcel of the stir caused by 'the West Indian generation' as the late George Lamming 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

class="wikitable"

!Year

!Title

!Role

!Notes

1956

|A Man from the Sun

|Cast member

|TV Movie

1957

|The Buccaneers

|Nanny Macao

|TV Series

1958

|Storm Over Jamaica

|Mrs. Morgan

1958

|Television Playwright

|Maisie

1958

|BBC Sunday-Night Theatre

|Cast member/Ward Nurse

|TV Series ("The Green Pastures"/"No Deadly Medicine")

1959

|ITV Television Playhouse

|Mrs. Jackson

|TV Series ("The Blood Fight")

1960

|Saturday Playhouse

|Sarah

|TV Series

1960

|No Kidding (also called Beware of Children)

|Black Mother

1960

|Eugene O'Neill: Three Plays of the Sea

The Moon of the Caribbees,

Bound East for Cardiff &

In the Zone

|Bella

|TV Movie

1960/61

|Danger Man

|Chloe/Native Woman

|Two TV episodes ("Colonel Rodriguez"/"Deadline")

1961

|Flame in the Streets

|uncredited

1961

|Hurricane

|Marie Robinson

|TV Series

1962

|Dark Pilgrimage

|Three street-walkers

|TV Movie

1962

|BBC Sunday-Night Play

|Esther

|TV Series ("The Day Before Atlanta")

1962

|The Saint

|Hotel Maid

|TV Series ("The Arrow of God")

1963

|Jezebel ex UK

|Miss Philpott

|TV Series

1963

|Harold Was Alright

|Nurse

1963

|Your World

|Mrs. Williams

|TV Series

1963

|Friday Night

|Nurse

|TV Series

1964

|Armchair Theatre

|Cleaner

|TV Series ("Sharp at Four")

1965/66

|Danger Man (US: Secret Agent)

|Madame Celeste/Millie

|Two TV episodes ("Parallel Lines Sometimes Meet"/"The Man on the Beach")

1965

|Barney Is My Darling

|TV Series

1965

|The Crucible

|Tituba

1966

|Naked Evil

|Landlady

|uncredited

1967

|The Deadly Affair

|Play Spectator

|uncredited

References

External links

{{IMDb name|id=0696086|name=Pearl Prescod}}
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-d0ODngsBPg "'I would have liked her to see the change happening right now': the theater star track Pearl Prescod2], Africa News Today (YouTube), June 2022.

Category:1920 births

Category:1966 deaths

Category:20th-century Black British women singers

Category:20th-century British women singers

Category:20th-century Trinidad and Tobago actors

Category:20th-century Trinidad and Tobago actresses

Category:20th-century Trinidad and Tobago singers

Category:20th-century Trinidad and Tobago women singers

Category:Actors from the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea

Category:Alumni of the Guildhall School of Music and Drama

Category:Black British activists

Category:Black British actresses