October is Black History Month, so every day during October I will be posting up an introduction to an historical person of colour with a place in the history of the United Kingdom.

George Augustus Polgreen Bridgetower was a virtuoso violinist who, though born in Poland, spent much of his life in England. He so impressed Beethoven that Beethoven originally dedicated his Kreutzer Sonata to him, though it was later dedicated to another violinist Rodolphe Kreutzer.

Bridgetower was born in Poland where his father worked for a Polish nobleman Prince Hieronim Wincenty Radziwiłł. His father, John Frederick Bridgetower, was probably a West Indian and was later a servant of the Hungarian Prince Esterházy, patron of the composer Haydn. George’s mother was from Germany.

Bridgetower moved to London at an early age and was performing as a violin soloist by the age of ten. He gave successful violin concerts in London, Paris, and elsewhere, and the British Prince Regent took an interest in him and oversaw his musical education.

On visiting his mother and brother in Dresden, Bridgetower gave concerts there and later in Vienna where he performed with Beethoven. It was at this time that Beethoven dedicated his sonata to Bridgetower, and they performed it for the first time together in May 1803. Beethoven presented Bridgetower with his tuning fork, now held by the British Library. However Bridgetower and Beethoven fell out, and Beethoven changed the dedication of the new violin sonata to Kreutzer, who never played it, saying that it had already been performed once and was too difficult.

Bridgetower returned to England, where he married and continued his musical career. He was elected to the Royal Society of Musicians, and studied at Trinity Hall, Cambridge where he earned the degree of Bachelor of Music in 1811. He died in Peckham at the age of 71 and is buried in Kensal Green Cemetery.

More about George Bridgetower at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Bridgetower