Samuel Coleridge-Taylor was arguably one of the earliest influential black figures associated with Croydon.

Yet the composer's remarkable musical accomplishments, set against his difficulties growing up in a deeply prejudiced Victorian society, remain relatively unknown.

Coleridge-Taylor was probably most famous for his composition Hiawatha's Wedding Feast, and some of the tributes to the composer in Croydon include a road and a school named after him.

Samuel Coleridge-Taylor was born in Holborn in 1875, to an English mother and a West African father, a doctor from Sierra Leone who set up his own practice in England.

His father, a member of the Royal College of Surgeons, returned to Africa while Samuel was quite young after his business failed and the boy was brought up single-handedly by his mother in Croydon.

Growing up in an era when ethnic minorities were few and far between meant a young Samuel was exposed to cruelty and ignorance.

As a child he was nicknamed Coaley' by school peers who set his hair on fire to see if it would burn and fellow students at the Royal College of Music, where he later studied, were heard to remark: "He is not far from being a cannibal".

However, he rose above racism to display an astonishing talent which later led to him being proclaimed a musical genius.

A young Samuel could read music before books and first learnt the violin from Benjamin Holman and Joseph Beckwith, both well-known in Croydon's music circles.

In 1890 he entered the Royal College of Music where it was soon recognised his abilities lay in composing.

After leaving college in 1897 he became a violin teacher and conductor of the string orchestra at Croydon Conservatoire, also taking on teaching roles at the Royal College of Music and Crystal Palace School of Music.

The turning point in his life came in 1898, at the age of 23 when Sir Edward Elgar, then considered to be England's greatest composer, asked him to compose a piece for the Three Choirs Festival.

He followed it with three choral works: The Song of Hiawatha, The Death of Minnihaha and Hiawatha's Departure. His success was even greater in America, which he visited several times.

May Johnson, of the Croydon Society, who recently researched the composer's life for a lecture said: "Much has been said of the racial element to Coleridge-Taylor's life, but first and foremost he was a deeply talented musician and composer and someone who made Croydon proud.

"He received such an enormous amount of admiration and respect from the, mostly white, music industry that I honestly believe, with them, his colour did not come into it."

In 1899, against opposition, Coleridge-Taylor married Jessie Fleetwood Walmisley at Holy Trinity Church in South Norwood.

The couple had a son and a daughter.

Coleridge-Taylor's prolific work was attributed to his punishing regime.

His wife commented after his death: "He was a very hard worker. He breakfasted punctually at 8.30am and started work at 9am, worked steadily till 12pm, then a walk, lunch at 1pm, work again till 4pm.

"After tea as a rule he worked less strenuously till supper time. Then there were his constant evening engagements."

Some believed his work schedule partly brought on his sudden death at the age of 37.

He developed flu-like symptoms while on his way to see an exhibition at Crystal Palace. He made it home to Aldwick, in St Leonard's Road, Croydon, but took to his bed and died a week later from acute pneumonia.

His funeral at St Michael and All Angels Church in Poplar Walk, West Croydon, was so packed that extra seats had to be placed in the aisles.

Berwick Sayers, former chief librarian of Croydon for 30 years, was a personal friend of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor and was asked by his wife to write his biography at his funeral.

In the preface to his book he says: "I had known him intimately for many years, as a personal friend admired and valued more than words can express.

"The whole of his life, from its inauspicious beginning until the end, was one of joyous striving, cheery optimism, ever-growing enthusiasm."

The Croydon Society is organising a historical walk commemorating the life of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor in September and is asking for groups organising their own events to contact them on 020 8654 6454.