Evelyn Mary Dove (11 January 1902 – 7 March 1987) was a British singer and actress, who early in her career drew comparisons with Josephine Baker. Of West African and English parentage, Dove built a solid reputation in Britain through her work with the BBC in the 1940s, and also performed internationally, travelling to France, Germany, Italy, Austria, the Netherlands, Hungary, the United States, India and Spain.Evelyn Mary Dove was born at the Lying-in Hospital, Endell Street, London, the daughter of leading Sierra Leonean barrister Francis (Frans) Dove (1869–1949) and his English first wife Augusta, née Winchester, from whom he was later divorced. Evelyn's older brother Frank Dove, who studied law at Oxford University, in 1915 was called up by the British army and fought at the Battle of Cambrai, being awarded the Military Medal.
Evelyn Dove died of pneumonia at Horton Hospital in Epsom, Surrey, aged 84, on 7 March 1987, registered as "Evelyn Dove, otherwise Brantley"[3] (she had married her third husband William Newton Brantley, in 1958, having previously been married to Felix John Basil Inglis Allen in 1941. On 18 September 1993, Moira Stuart featured Evelyn Dove in Salutations, a BBC Radio 2 series celebrating black British and British-based musical entertainers who came to fame between the 1930s and 1950s. A biography by Stephen Bourne, entitled Evelyn Dove: Britain's Black Cabaret Queen, was published in October 2016.
