History has recorded that it was Mr. Thompson who discovered the whereabouts of Jomo Kenyatta after his abduction by the British during Kenya’s MauMau revolution and it was Thompson who assembled the international legal team that defended Kenyatta. Mr. Thompson 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 in 1965. Senator Thompson, a member of the People’s National Party, was internationally known as a leading lawyer and President of the Jamaican Bar Association. However, when (Dame) Lois Browne-Evans, who along with the late Arnold Francis, acted as junior lawyers in the case, had difficulty getting Senator Thompson admitted to the Bermuda Bar due to stiff opposition from several local lawyers who didn’t want a foreign Queen’s Counsel on the case.

According to Dame Lois’ 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.”

Mr. Thompson served Jamaica, his adopted home (as he was born in Panama of Jamaican parents) 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 (PNP) swept the Jamaican Labour Party from office in 1972 and stayed in that position until 1975. But 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 Edward Seago in West Kingston. He served in the Upper House until 1978 when he successfully contested a by-election for the St. Andrew West seat. Thompson left an indelible mark on the proceedings in the Parliament despite his short stints as minister of mining and natural resources, as well as national security and justice between 1977 and 1980.

Dudley 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”. Mr. Thompson and Mr. 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.

Ambassador Dudley J Thompson, OJ, QC, the 'Burning Spear', was the advocate extraordinaire, an intellectual, Rhodes Scholar, war hero, statesman and raconteur of the highest order," said former Jamaica Prime Minister PJ Patterson.

"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.