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11 Facts About Pearl Prescod

1.

Pearl Priscilla Prescod was a Tobagonian actress and singer.

2.

Pearl Prescod 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.

3.

Pearl Prescod was a trained classical singer and had aspirations to pursue a classical music education in England.

4.

Pearl Prescod arrived in Britain in the early 1950s after winning a musical scholarship to Guildhall School of Music.

5.

In 1954, Pearl Prescod was cast in Barry Reckord's first play Flesh to a Tiger.

6.

Pearl Prescod successfully procured a number of BBC contracts and landed many television roles and plays over the years.

7.

Pearl Prescod was part of a West Indian singing group called The New World Singers and was the leader of the sopranos in the choir.

8.

Pearl Prescod had a part in the play, along with Nadia Cattouse, Andrew Salkey, Sheila Clarke, Gordon Woolford and Sylvia Wynter.

9.

Pearl Prescod played an active role alongside Claudia Jones, and was involved in organising the March on Washington solidarity demonstration in London on 31 August 1963.

10.

Pearl 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.

11.

Pearl Prescod died on 25 June 1966 from a brain hemorrhage in Kensington, London, and was survived by her son Colin Pearl Prescod, a sociologist and trustee of the Friends of the Huntley Archives at LMA.