Meta Davis Cumberbatch MBE (4 May 1900 – 29 December 1978) was a

Trinidad Trinidad is the larger, more populous island of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, the country. The island lies off the northeastern coast of Venezuela and sits on the continental shelf of South America. It is the southernmost island in ...

-born pianist, composer, poet, playwright and cultural activist, who spent the majority of her life in

The Bahamas The Bahamas, officially the Commonwealth of The Bahamas, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic and island country within the Lucayan Archipelago of the Atlantic Ocean. It contains 97 per cent of the archipelago's land area and 88 per cent of ...

, where she used her talents to enhance the country's cultural development, becoming known as the "Mother of the Arts"."Meta Davis Cumberbatch – Pioneer of The Arts"
Our Culture Warriors. At the 2014 Independence anniversary celebrations in Nassau she was honoured as a Bahamian "Cultural Warrior".

Biography

Meta Davis was born in

San Fernando, Trinidad San Fernando, officially the City of San Fernando, is the most populous city and second most populous municipality in Trinidad and Tobago, after Chaguanas. Sando, as it is known to many local Trinidadians, occupies 19 km2 and is located in t ...

, on 4 May 1900, to James Augustus Davis and Ruth O'Neill Davis, who were both originally from

St. Vincent and the Grenadines Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, sometimes known simply as Saint Vincent or SVG, is an island country in the eastern Caribbean. It is located in the southeast Windward Islands of the Lesser Antilles, which lie in the West Indies, at the south ...

. Meta's musical talent manifested itself early and she could pick out a tune on the piano before she could write her own name."Meta Davis, artist of Bahamas", '' The New Courier'', 18 March 1972, p. 13. After attending Trinity Girls School and Bishop Anstey High School in

Port of Spain Port of Spain ( ; Trinidadian and Tobagonian English, Trinidadian English: ''Port ah Spain'' ) is the capital and chief port of Trinidad and Tobago. With a municipal population of 49,867 (2017), an urban population of 81,142 and a transient dail ...

, Meta and her younger sisters Beryl and Kathleen were sent by their parents to England in 1919 with the intention that they study medicine at

Bristol University The University of Bristol is a public research university in Bristol, England. It received its royal charter in 1909, although it can trace its roots to a Merchant Venturers' school founded in 1595 and University College, Bristol, which had ...

.Jeffarah Gibson
"Meta-Davis Cumberbatch's Legacy Lives On"
''Tribune 242'', 18 June 2013. However, as she stated in a 1972 interview, her ambitions lay elsewhere: "I couldn't even stand the sight of blood.... I begged my father not to send me because everyone knew me as 'Meta the Musician', and I loved music." She nevertheless did spend a short time at the university, though often so engrossed at the piano that she forgot to attend lectures. So from medical studies she transferred to the

Royal Academy of Music The Royal Academy of Music (RAM) in London, England, is one of the oldest music schools in the UK, founded in 1822 by John Fane and Nicolas-Charles Bochsa. It received its royal charter in 1830 from King George IV with the support of the firs ...

, where she trained as a concert pianist, and would eventually win acclaim playing on the stages of

Wigmore Hall The Wigmore Hall is a concert hall at 36 Wigmore Street, in west London. It was designed by Thomas Edward Collcutt and opened in 1901 as the Bechstein Hall; it is considered to have particularly good building acoustics, acoustics. It specialis ...

, London, and

Carnegie Hall Carnegie Hall ( ) is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. It is at 881 Seventh Avenue (Manhattan), Seventh Avenue, occupying the east side of Seventh Avenue between 56th Street (Manhattan), 56th and 57th Street (Manhattan), 57t ...

in New York, as well as throughout Europe and the Caribbean. In 1923, she married fellow Trinidadian Dr Roland Cumberbatch, and after he accepted a post through the Colonial Medical Service in 1926 the couple eventually settled in The Bahamas, helping to build the country and becoming part of the black professional opposition to racism. According to her grandson Dr Peter Maynard, author of the biography ''Great Awakening: Meta Davis Cumberbatch, "Mother of the Arts"'' (2010): "There were so many artistic and cultural forms that were not being widely expressed. ...She saw her purpose as developing the arts in the Bahamas." She taught piano, drama and dance (her protégés included

Winston Saunders Winston Vernon Saunders, Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George, CMG (3 October 1941 – 25 November 2006) was a The Bahamas, Bahamian educator, lawyer, actor, playwright and cultural director. Early life In his youth, Saunders atten ...

, Hubert Farrington, and Clement Bethel), and encouraged and promoted indigenous crafts using local materials. In the early 1960s, she originated and ran an annual national Festival of Arts and Crafts, as well as initiating the Dundas Centre for the Performing Arts. In addition to composing music, she wrote poetry, plays and essays – collected in ''Complete Works of Meta Davis Cumberbatch: Poems, Plays, Music and Essays'', edited by Peter Maynard – and also helped to form the Council of Women and supported the women's suffrage movement. In

1966 Events January * January 1 – In a coup, Colonel Jean-Bédel Bokassa takes over as military ruler of the Central African Republic, ousting President David Dacko. * January 3 – 1966 Upper Voltan coup d'état: President Maurice Yaméogo i ...

, she was appointed a

Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...

(MBE) "for public services in the Bahamas", and the award was presented by

Queen Elizabeth II Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary; 21 April 19268 September 2022) was Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms from 6 February 1952 until Death and state funeral of Elizabeth II, her death in 2022. ...

during her visit to the Caribbean in February that year. Davis Cumberbatch died at home in the Bahamas on 29 December 1978, aged 78.

Legacy

In 2014, at the 41st Independence anniversary celebrations under the theme "Celebrating our Culture: A Commitment to Peace", Meta Davis Cumberbatch was one of 41 "Cultural Warriors" honoured by the Bahamian government for dedicating their lives to cultural development. Her work is included in the 2019 anthology '' New Daughters of Africa'', edited by

Margaret Busby Margaret Yvonne Busby, , Hon. FRSL (born 1944), also known as Nana Akua Ackon, is a Ghanaian-born publisher, editor, writer and broadcaster, resident in the UK. She was Britain's then youngest publisher as well as the first black female book p ...

. Selwyn R. Cudjoe
"New Daughters of Africa"
trinicenter.com, 8 April 2019.

References

External links

"Meta Davis"
at Cumberbatch Family History. {{DEFAULTSORT:Davis Cumberbatch, Meta 1900 births 1978 deaths 20th-century women pianists Alumni of the Royal Academy of Music Bahamian composers Women composers Bahamian musicians Bahamian women writers Members of the Order of the British Empire Trinidad and Tobago composers Trinidad and Tobago women composers Immigrants to the Bahamas Trinidad and Tobago emigrants Trinidad and Tobago poets 20th-century Trinidad and Tobago women writers 20th-century Trinidad and Tobago writers Trinidad and Tobago women poets

Biography

Legacy

Further reading

References

External links