The actress and singer Elisabeth Welch moved away from the racial difficulties of her homeland America in the 1930s and settled in the UK, where she lived for the rest of her life.
A favourite singer of Ivor Novello, Cole Porter and Noel Coward, she was an early pioneer of (then) unusual and difficult cabaret material - she introduced
Stormy Weather to British audiences, was the first to popularise
As Time Goes By (before
Casablanca) and fell foul of censorship when she became associated with the song
Love for Sale.
She performed for the British troops during the war and for the Queen at several Royal Variety Performances, and broke new ground by being the first black person to have their own BBC radio show and by starring with Paul Robeson in some early film roles where black characters were - gasp! - not just "the servants". Robeson, a passionate campaigner for black civil rights, urged her to join the fight. "She said 'Paul, my father was African and native American, my mother was Scottish and Irish, I've got four people within me, I can't make a stand for all of them, you'll have to excuse me.' He roared with laughter and hugged her, and the subject was never mentioned again."
Now she has finally, posthumously, been recognised with a Blue Plaque on her Kensington home. Despite being nominated for Olivier and Tony awards for her work, she surprisingly never received an honour from the Queen in her lifetime.
Read more about the plaque unveiling
Here is a most stunning performance by Miss Welch singing her "signature tune"
Stormy Weather in Derek Jarman's
The Tempest, a scene described by George Melly as "arguably the campest, most sparkling moment in the history of cinema":
Elisabeth Welch obituary from The Telegraph
