Described by the court as possessing “an unusual command of 'the tongue that Shakespeare spoke' a felicity of expression, good taste, and intellectual force”, Christian Frederick Cole made History by being England’s first Black barrister after studying at Oxford, where, whilst there, he was the University's first Black scholar.
Born in the village of Waterloo, in Sierra Leone in West Africa, in 1852, Christian Frederick Cole fought his way to Oxford before being accepted by the Inner Temple, in 1883, to create the historic ‘first’. Known for his linguistic talent,
Educated at the Fourah Bay College in Freetown - the oldest western-style college in sub-Saharan Africa - on arriving in the UK, at Oxford he studied as a non-collegiate student classics with the Delegacy of Unattached Students (now St Catherine's College) in 1873. A young Cole paid his way by teaching Responsions, one of the qualifying exams for Oxford degrees, with his classes said to have been popular.
He also taught music lessons – teaching and playing the piano. He became popular at the college, which was especially highlighted after his uncle died and his financial situation was poor. It was then that his fellow students, and the then Master of University College, George Bradley, raised money to help him out.
Despite the many problems he faced, Christian graduated, in 1876, with a fourth-class honours degree and was accepted as a member of University College, a position he held until April 1880. On returning to his homeland, Cole delivered lectures on education in Freetown, which were published in 1880.
He also published two pamphlets – ‘What Do Men Say about Negroes?’, which was a response to F. E. Weatherly's book ‘Oxford Days’. The other - Reflections on the Zulu War, By a Negro, BA., of University College, Oxford, and the Inner Temple - contained his thoughts on the Anglo-Zulu war.
He later went to Zanzibar to continue his career in law.
