Nadia Evadne Cattouse was born in Belize City on 2 November 1924.[1] Her father, Albert Cattouse, was a civil servant who became Deputy Prime Minister of British Honduras, and her mother, Kathleen Fairweather Cattouse, was an educator.[2]
In 1943, during the Second World War, Nadia Cattouse came to Britain as a volunteer and was trained in Edinburgh, Scotland, as a signals operator.[3] She also became a part-time physical training instructor with the ATS.[4] She subsequently attended teacher training college in Glasgow, and after qualifying she returned to British Honduras, where she was headmistress of a Mission school and lectured on infant education at Teachers' Training College and summer courses.[5] She returned to Britain in 1951 and studied Social Sciences at the London School of Economics, acting and singing to pay her way through college.
Cattouse began her television career in 1954.[3][6][7] She appeared in two prize-winning television productions, Freedom Road: Songs of Negro Protest (1964)[8] and There I Go,[5] and appeared on stage as Felicity in Jean Genet′s The Blacks.[5] Her notable recordings as a folk singer included "Long Time Boy"[9] and "Red and Green Christmas".[5]
As a singer in the 1960s she performed at Les Cousins folk and blues club in Greek Street, London, and appeared in television programmes including the BBC's Sing Along and Hootenanny. On the folk scene, she was a contemporary of Julie Felix and Fairport Convention, and was described by Melody Maker as "one of the giants of the folk-song revival in Britain".[10] With Robin Hall and Jimmie Macgregor she made Songs of Grief & Glory in 1967.[11] Her album Earth Mother (1970) was partly recorded at the 1969 Edinburgh Festival. Among other compilations, Cattouse featured on Cult Cargo: Belize City Boil Up (2005), singing "Long Time Boy",[12] and on the 1972 album Club Folk 2 (Peg Records PS3), singing "B. C. People"[13] and "All Around My Grandmother's Floor".[14]
Cattouse married David Lindup (1928–1992), an arranger-composer with John Dankworth's orchestra, in 1958. The couple had two children and their son Mike Lindup is the keyboard player of the jazz-funk new wave band Level 42. The couple divorced in the mid-60s and in 1969 Nadia married Bryan Webb.[15]
Cattouse died in London on 29 October 2024 at the age of 99.[6][15]
Award
September 2009, Meritorious Service Award from the Government of Belize, "in recognition of her advancement of social, cultural, and political awareness among Belizeans and other Caribbean people in the UK".[16]
