Lemuel McPherson Christian

Lemuel McPherson Christian MBE (1 May 1913 – 12 June 2000), widely referred to as L. M. Christian, was a Dominican music educator and composer, who wrote the music for “Isle of Beauty, Isle of Splendour”, the national anthem of the Commonwealth of Dominica, the words being written by Wilfred Oscar Morgan Pond (1912–1985). Also a music teacher, Christian ran the first music school in the Eastern Caribbean. Biography Early years Lemuel McPherson Christian was born on 1 May 1913 on the island of Saint Kitts, to parents from Antigua, Beryl and William Matthew Christian. William Christian (1879–1961) was serving as a police sergeant in the Leeward Islands Police Force, and Lemuel (one of eight children born to his mother, the others being Edris, Henckell, Ruby, Wendell, Floss, Clement and Daisy) went to Dominica as a child with his parents, in 1918. Encouraging Lemuel’s early passion for music, his parents bought him a guitar on which to develop his talent, and he would go on to master 25 instruments. By 1935, he established, together with his older brother Henckell and sister Ruby, the Christian Family Orchestra. which he ran in conjunction with typing classes, opening the Christian Co