Victoria Matilda Davies Randle ( Davies; 1863 – 1920) was a socialite in

Victorian Victorian or Victorians may refer to: 19th century * Victorian era, British history during Queen Victoria's 19th-century reign ** Victorian architecture ** Victorian house ** Victorian decorative arts ** Victorian fashion ** Victorian literature ...

Lagos Colony.

Life

Victoria Davies was the eldest child of

James Pinson Labulo Davies James Pinson Labulo Davies (14 August 1828 – 29 April 1906) was a Nigerian businessman, merchant-sailor, naval officer, farmer, pioneer industrialist, statesman, and philanthropist who married Sara Forbes Bonetta in colonial Lagos. Early li ...

, a wealthy Lagos merchant, and

Sara Forbes Bonetta Sara Forbes Bonetta, otherwise known as Sarah Forbes Bonetta, (born Aina or Ina; 1843 – 15 August 1880), was ward and goddaughter of Queen Victoria. She was believed to have been a titled member of the Egbado clan of the Yoruba people in West ...

, an Egbado omoba who had been adopted as the goddaughter of Queen Victoria. When she was born in 1863, she was named in honour of the Queen, who accepted to be her godmother as well. The queen provided her with both an annuity and a golden christening set. She later invited the younger Victoria to Windsor. Like her mother, she also showed considerable intelligence. She was educated at

Cheltenham Ladies' College Cheltenham Ladies' College is an independent boarding and day school for girls aged 11 to 18 in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, England. Consistently ranked as one of the top all-girls' schools nationally, the school was established in 1853 to pr ...

. In 1890, Victoria married Dr. John Randle, a West African Scottish-trained medical doctor, and two hundred guests - including the governor of the Lagos Colony – were in attendance at the wedding at St. Paul’s Church in Lagos. The service was officiated by the Reverend

James Johnson James Johnson may refer to: Artists, actors, authors, and musicians *James Austin Johnson (born 1989), American comedian & actor, ''Saturday Night Live'' cast member * James B. Johnson (born 1944), author of science nonfiction novels *James P. Joh ...

and her wedding gown was a careful selection of the queen's, as her own mother's had been years before. Victoria Davies Randle later took her children Beatrice and John to visit her godmother in 1900, escorted by Bishop Johnson. In a continuation of tradition, Princess Beatrice then became her own daughter's godmother. Her marriage eventually fell apart; she lived in exile with the children thereafter, first in the United Kingdom and then in Sierra Leone, only returning to Lagos in 1917. In London, Davies Randle had made the acquaintance of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, the prodigy who would rise to become a prominent Black British musician. She was later mentioned by Coleridge-Taylor as the source of the

Yoruba The Yoruba people (, , ) are a West African ethnic group that mainly inhabit parts of Nigeria, Benin, and Togo. The areas of these countries primarily inhabited by Yoruba are often collectively referred to as Yorubaland. The Yoruba constitute ...

folk song in his collection, ''Oloba yale mi''. Davies Randle provided Coleridge-Taylor with a Yoruba drum theme that he used in his ''Twenty-four Negro Melodies''. Her final years were dedicated to the activities of the Ladies' Club, a group of upper-class women in Lagos. She died in 1920.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Randle, Victoria Davies 1863 births 1920 deaths Saro people Nigerian socialites People from Lagos People educated at Cheltenham Ladies' College Queen Victoria Women of the Victorian era Yoruba women Nigerian princesses Yoruba princesses People from colonial Nigeria Randle family Black British history History of women in Lagos People from Lagos Colony

Life

See also

References