By Bill Hern
Whilst not quite ‘forgotten history’, Sarah Bonetta Forbes-Davies’ remarkable story is not as widely known as it deserves to be. Here, Bill Hern of Historycal Roots, re-tells her story and describes his visit to her final resting place, metaphorically and literally opening the gates to remind us of a sadly neglected figure.
Although not as well-known as Dido Elizabeth Belle (subject of the film ‘Belle’) who died in 1804, the story of the life of Sarah Bonetta Forbes-Davies has gained greater exposure in recent years. There is no doubt that Sarah is a significant figure in Black British History and yet, when I first visited the site of her grave on the island of Madeira, I found it was unmarked.
I visit Sarah’s grave each year in the beautiful British Cemetery in Funchal:
On each visit I have felt a sadness that it does not even have a headstone. If it were not for a marker planted in the ground over her burial plot we would have no way of recognising where Sarah was laid to rest.
I understand that Sarah’s husband erected a granite monument more than 8 feet high in Ijon in Western Lagos but whether, 138 years later, that memorial still stands I do not know.
In 2018 I was heartened to see that others must remember Sarah too. A figure had been placed on her grave. But surely, I thought, one of the most prominent Black women in Victorian Britain warrants at the very least a headstone?
For those of you that aren’t conversant with Sarah’s amazing life here is a short summary:
Sarah was born in Oke-Odan, West Africa in 1843. She was the equivalent to a Princess and her birth name was Aina. She was orphaned when only 5 years old after enemies ransacked her village killing her parents and taking her into slavery.
She was being held by King Ghezo of Dahomey when a Royal Navy Captain, Frederick E Forbes, visited Dahomey on a mission to dissuade the King from continuing to deal in slavery. Captain Forbes allegedly persuaded King Ghezo to give the now 8-year old Aina to Queen Victoria. Other versions of this story claim that King Ghezo offered the girl as a gift to Queen Victoria. Whatever the truth, the little girl joined Captain Forbes on his ship, HMS Bonetta, to make the journey back to England.
Captain Forbes named the girl Sarah Bonetta Forbes after his ship and his own surname. On arrival in England Sarah was taken to see Queen Victoria. She enchanted the Queen just as she captivated many people over her short life. The Queen treated Sarah as a goddaughter.
Sarah was hugely intelligent and musically gifted. She was educated in Africa (Sierra Leone) and England.
In 1862, when still only 18 years old, Sarah married Captain James Pinson Labulo Davies, a wealthy Nigerian merchant, 13 years her senior. The wedding was a lavish affair at the Church of St Nicholas in Brighton.
As an indication of the status Sarah had reached with the Royal family she had attended, only one month prior to her own marriage, the wedding of Queen Victoria’s daughter Princess Alice. This was a private affair taking place only months after the death of Victoria’s beloved husband Prince Albert, yet Sarah was invited and attended.
Shortly after her marriage Sarah became pregnant. She gave birth to a daughter in 1863. After seeking permission from Queen Victoria, the proud parents named the child Victoria Matilda. Victoria went on to become a goddaughter of Queen Victoria.
The family then moved to Lagos, Nigeria and two further children Arthur (1871) and Stella (1873) were born.
Sarah never enjoyed perfect health and while in Lagos she was diagnosed with Tuberculosis (TB). For poor people TB meant almost certain death but people of Sarah’s standing and wealth were advised to go to a country with a more favourable climate in order to recover. Her doctor recommended she go to the island of Madeira in the Atlantic Ocean. Sadly, the remedy was not a success and Sarah passed away on 15 August 1880.
Such was the affection in which Sarah was held, news of her death was quickly relayed to Queen Victoria who recounted seeing how distraught Victoria Davies was upon hearing of her mother’s death.
Victoria Davies would go on to marry a Nigerian physician Dr John Randle who was himself an important but much under-rated figure in Black British History and definitely a candidate for a further article on Historycal Roots.
Postscript
I am pleased to report that since I wrote the above article, one hundred and thirty nine years after her death, Sarah finally has a gravestone!
Much of the thanks for this great news is due to a lady called Taiwo Olaiya who raised almost £1,000 in sponsorship when she completed the Hackney half-marathon in 2017. The rest of the cost was met by the people of Madeira via The Diocese in Europe (Church of England).
After learning of this most welcome and overdue development I went to see the caretaker of the Cemetery and asked if I could see Sarah’s burial record. He took me to the interior of the Chapel and unlocked the door of a huge safe. Taking a ledger from the safe we leafed through the records until we came to August 1880. There we saw the entry for Sarah. She is shown as the wife of I P L Davies of Lagos, West Africa. She died on 15 August aged 37 and was buried on the following day as was normal in those days. This of course meant that she almost certainly had no friends or members of her family at her funeral. We know for certain that her eldest daughter, Victoria, was not there as Queen Victoria noted in her diary: ‘saw poor Victoria Davies, my black godchild who learnt this morning of the death of her dear mother.’
After 139 years visitors to the British Cemetery will now be able to see that what was previously shown simply as Plot 206 is the resting place of a Princess – and not before time! Well done to Taiwo and the people of Madeira.