Dudley Thompson

Dudley Joseph Thompson , OJ , QC (born January 19, 1917 in Panama - † January 20, 2012 in New York , USA ) was a Jamaican lawyer , diplomat and politician with the People's National Party (PNP).

Life

Dudley Thompson was born on January 19, 1917 to Daniel and Ruby Thompson in Panama and grew up in Jamaica. He attended Mico College, then worked as a teacher and became principal in 1937 before volunteering with the Royal Air Force (RAF). He was first trained at the RAF's Officer's Training College in Cranwell , then from 1941 to 1945 he took part in the Second World War in Europe as a member of the aircraft crews of the British RAF Bomber Command . He has received multiple awards and promoted to the rank of Flight Lieutenant . After the war he studied from 1947 as a Rhodes scholarship holder at the University of Oxford . He completed his studies with a Master of Arts in law , later he also acquired a Bachelor of Civil Law. He then worked as a lawyer, initially in East Africa, later also in Jamaica, the Bahamas , Bermuda and other West Indian countries. Thompson was among other things from 1962 chairman of the Jamaica Bar Association. In 1963 he was appointed Queen's Council (QC).

After retiring, he spent the last few years of his life in Weston , Florida. Thompson was married with five children.

politics

Thompson was a Senator for the People's National Party from 1962 to 1978 , when he was elected to the House of Representatives in the St. Andrew Western constituency, to which he was a member until 1983.

During Michael Manley's administration , Thompson was first Secretary of State in the State Department from 1972 to 1975 . Between 1977 and 1978 he served as Minister of Mines and Natural Resources. In 1978 he was appointed Minister for National Security. Thompson's comment " No angels died at Green Bay " caused controversy after five supporters of the Jamaica Labor Party , including the well-known soccer player Norman Thompson , in Green Bay near Portmore on January 5, 1978 , ambushed and shot dead by members of the Jamaican Army . In 1999, he apologized for the statement, stating that it was a misjudgment due to the tense atmosphere of the late 1970s. In 1979 Thompson was elected chairman of the PNP.

diplomacy

After retiring from politics, he worked for his country as ambassador or high commissioner in Nigeria , Ghana , Sierra Leone and Namibia , as well as the highest representative of Jamaica at the Conference on the Law of the Sea. He played a leading role in establishing Kingston as the seat of the International Seabed Authority .

Pan-Africanism

He was involved in the Pan-African Movement for many years , took part in the fifth Pan-African Congress in Manchester and was one of the leading members of the international legal team that Jomo Kenyatta , later President of Kenya , represented when the British brought him for the Mau in the 1950s -Mau war put the trial. He also served as legal advisor to Julius Nyerere , who later became Tanzania's first president , in the 1950s . From 2008 until his death, Thompson was President of the World Africa Diaspora Union (WADU).

death

Thompson died on January 20, 2012 in New York after a heart attack. On February 10, 2012, after a mourning ceremony in the Holy Trinity Cathedral in Kingston, he was attended by Governor General Patrick Allen , Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller , opposition leader Andrew Holness , former Prime Minister Percival J. Patterson and the leader of the Nation of Islam Louis Farrakhan participated, buried in the military cemetery in Briggs Park.

Honors

• Order of Jamaica (1989)
• Order of Balboa (Panama)

Works

• Dudley J. Thompson, Margaret Cezair Thompson: From Kingston to Kenya - The Making of a Pan-Africanist Lawyer , Majority Press, 1993. ISBN 978-0-912469-29-4
• Barrington Watson (illustrations), Dudley J. Thompson, with a foreword by Kofi Annan : The Pan-Africanists , Africa World Press 2000. ISBN 978-0-86543-809-5

literature

• Robert Johnson: Fighting for Africa: The Pan-African Contributions of Ambassador Dudley J. Thompson and Bill Sutherland , University Press of America, 2010. ISBN 978-0-7618-4791-5

Web links

• Website by Dudley J. Thompson

Individual evidence

1. ↑ PM expresses sadness at Dudley Thompson's passing ( Memento of the original from February 15, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Government of Jamaica, Office of the Prime Minister, January 20, 2012. Retrieved January 21, 2012.  
2. ↑ ^{a b} Dudley Thompson's rich legacy , Jamaica Observer, January 22, 2012. Retrieved January 22, 2012.
3. ^ Pan-African and Jamaican statesman Dudley Thompson has died. He was 95. , Miami Herald, January 20, 2012. Retrieved January 21, 2012.
4. ^ Former Cabinet minister, MP Dudley Thompson is dead , Jamaica Observer, January 20, 2012. Retrieved January 21, 2012.
5. ↑ Thompson is dead , Jamaica Gleaner, January 21, 2012. Retrieved January 21, 2012.
6. ^ A Killing Shocks Jamaicans Into Soul-Searching , New York Times, October 18, 1999. Retrieved January 26, 2012.
7. ↑ Flashback - The Green Bay affair ( Memento of the original from January 24, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Jamaica Observer, April 30, 2006. Retrieved January 22, 2012.  
8. ↑ Plea for political unity as Thompson laid to rest , Jamaica Observer, February 11, 2012. Retrieved February 11, 2012.
9. ↑ Thompson laid to rest , Jamaica Gleaner, February 11, 2012. Retrieved February 11, 2012.
10. ↑ Official Funeral for Ambassador the Hon. Dudley Thompson OJ, QC on February 10 ( Memento of the original from February 1, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Government of Jamaica, Office of the Prime Minister, January 30, 2012. Retrieved February 1, 2012.