We consider the effect of compact stellar remnants on the interstellar medium of a massive star cluster following the initial burst of star formation . We argue that accretion onto stellar-mass black holes is an effective mechanism for rapid gas depletion in clusters of all masses , as long as they contain progenitor stars more massive than \gtrsim 50 \ > { M _ { \odot } } . This scenario appears especially attractive for the progenitor systems of present-day massive globular clusters which likely had masses above M \gtrsim 10 ^ { 7 } \ > { M _ { \odot } } . In such clusters , alternative mechanisms such as supernovae and stellar winds can not provide a plausible explanation for the sudden removal of the primordial gas reservoir that is required to explain their complex chemical enrichment history . In order to consider different regimes in the rate of gas accretion onto stellar mass black holes , we consider both the Bondi-Hoyle approximation as well as Eddington-limited accretion . For either model , our results show that the cluster gas can be significantly depleted within only a few tens of Myrs . In addition , this process will affect the distribution of black hole masses and , by extension , may accelerate the dynamical decoupling of the black hole population and , ultimately , their dynamical ejection . Moreover , the timescales for gas depletion are sufficiently short that the accreting black holes could significantly affect the chemistry of subsequent star formation episodes . The gas depletion times and final mass in black holes are not only sensitive to the assumed model for the accretion rate , but also to the initial mass of the most massive black hole which , in turn , is determined by the upper mass cut-off of the stellar initial mass function . Given that the mass function of ‘ ‘ dark ’ ’ remnants is a crucial parameter for their dynamical ejection , our results imply that their accretion history can have an important bearing on the observed present-day cluster mass-to-light ratio . In particular , we show that the expected increase of the upper mass cut-off with decreasing metallicity could contribute to the observed anti-correlation between the mass-to-light ratio and the metallicity of globular clusters .