PLP Mourns Jamaica’s Thompson
The Bermuda Progressive Labour Party is mourning the death of Dudley Thompson, the Jamaican lawyer and former Cabinet Minister who defended the late MP and Bermuda Industrial Union official Dr. Barbara Ball when she stood trial following the 1965 Belco riots.
Mr. Thompson [pictured here] died in New York on Friday, January 20, 2012, a day after celebrating his 95th birthday.
Mr. Thompson became well known in Bermuda when he was the lead defence lawyer for Dr. Barbara Ball who had been accused of “inciting the crowds” during the Belco strike. Then Senator Thompson, a member of the Caribbean island-nation’s People’s National Party, was internationally known as a leading lawyer and president of the Jamaican Bar Association.
Former PLP leader and Bermuda Attorney General Dame Lois Browne Evans worked with the Jamaican advocate on Dr. Ball’s defense.
According to her biographer J. Randolph Williams: “Senator Thompson’s defence of Dr. Ball was reported to be the most moving charge that a Bermudian jury had ever heard. After a week-long trial, the jury brought in a verdict of not guilty.”
Born in Panama but raised in his parents’ native Jamaica, Mr. Thompson served in Britain’s Royal Air Force during World War II.
Dudley Thompson As A Royal Air Force Combat Flier In World War Two
Following the war, he was a Jamaican Rhodes Scholarship and attended Oxford University in 1947.
A Pan-Africanist who worked in Tanganyika [later Tanaznia] after qualifying as a lawyer, he may be best remembered for his famous defense of Kenyan nationalist leader Jomo Kenyatta after he was abducted by the British military during the Mau Mau uprising 1952.
Assembled the international legal team which came to Mr. Kenyatta’s defense, the future president of post-colonial Kenya said of Dudley Thompson: “This man saved my life.”
Mr. Thompson served Jamaica in various capacities. He was ambassador to African nations Nigeria, Namibia, Senegal and Ghana. He also served as Minister of State for Foreign Affairs when the People’s National Party under Michael Manley’s leadership swept the Jamaican Labour Party from office in 1972 and stayed in that position until 1975.
But Mr. Thompson had been a part of the political process before, when he sat on the PNP side of the Senate in 1962, following his loss in the general election of that year to future Prime Minister Edward Seago in West Kingston.
He served in the Upper House until 1978 when he successfully contested a by-election. As an elected MP he served as Minister of Mining & Natural Resources as well as National Security & Justice Minister between 1977 and 1980.
Mr. Thompson was last in Bermuda in February 2000 as guest of the Bermuda College as one of the international speakers in the College’s “Distinguished Lecture Series”.
He and Michael Foot, former leader of the British Labour Party, were co-panelists at a standing room only lecture in the North Lecture Hall where a mixture of young and old, black and white, Bermudians and guest workers and Parliamentarians, past and present, from both the Progressive Labour Party and the United Bermuda Party, heard Mr. Thompson and Mr. Foot speak on global developments.
Mr. Thompson was s in New York to deliver a lecture to a group of university students when he died.
He is to be accorded an official funeral in Jamaica.
“Dudley Thompson was simply the best, in whatever field he chose to serve. His contribution to the building of Jamaica as a nation — to its constitution, its jurisprudence, its diplomacy, its political system, global reputation and its international standing — is unparalleled,” said former Prime Minister of Jamaica, P.J. Patterson.
Read More About
Category: All, History, Politics
Farewell Great Warrior Prince Mr Dudley Thompson QC was first amongst the class of Great Warriors principally upon the battlefield for Justice and in politics and public service his aviator stays was mere evidence of his daring courageous spirit. a memory of Dudley over a drink as he described a meal he often made his words turning soft and round in his head he described the slow roasting of salt fish in coconut water garnished with ackee and taken with warm breadfruit and fresh Jamaican fresh squeezed orange juice Dudley’s creation formed in my mind so that I could taste it – I recall a visit to his home where I learned of his painting prowess he painted in watercolors and oils and so to his status of the Great Warrior i add a devout Renaissance Man.
Ever heard of punctuation, Michael?
Farewell Great Warrior Prince: Mr Dudley Thompson QC was first amongst the class of Great Warriors, principally upon the battlefield for Justice as well as in politics and public service. His aviator status was mere testament to his daring and courageous spirit. I have a memory of Dudley describing to me over a drink a meal he often made or was it Dudley at his poetic best, in any event his description was so strong I could taste the creation , his words turning soft and roundly in his head as he described, the slow roasting of salt fish in coconut water garnished with ackee and taken with warm breadfruit and Jamaican fresh squeezed orange juice – I recall a visit to his home where I learned of his painting prowess, he painted in watercolors and oils and so to his status of the Great Warrior I add a devout Renaissance Man. Rest On Great Prince. Michael