Former Jamaican minister of national security and justice, minister of foreign affairs, and ambassador, Dudley Thompson, OJ, QC, died on January 20 in New York where he was attending a meeting, one day after his 95th birthday.

Born in Panama on January 19, 1917 to Daniel and Ruby Thompson, Thompson (nicknamed The Burning Spear) was a life member of the People's National Party (PNP), and was elected Chairman of the party in 1979.

He was a PNP Senator in the years 1962 to 1978, and was leader of Government Business in the House of Representatives in 1978. He served as Member of Parliament for St. Andrew Western from 1978 to 1983; Minister of National Security in 1978; Minister of Mining and Natural Resources from 1977 to 1978 and Minister of State, with the responsibility for Foreign Affairs from 1972 to 1975.

"I am deeply saddened to learn of the passing of the Hon. Dudley Thompson, an outstanding Jamaican politician, diplomat and statesman, and a personal and dear friend for more than four decades," said current Jamaican Prime Minister, Portia Simpson Miller. "His passing is exceptionally painful for me, as it was only recently after my electoral victory that he called with a most heart-warming congratulation."

Thompson was Jamaica's ambassador to Nigeria, Ghana, Sierra Leone, and Namibia. He was Jamaica's chief representative in the conference on the Law of the Sea and played a leading role in securing Jamaica as the permanent headquarters for the International Seabed Authority. He also introduced the Office of the Ombudsman to Jamaica.

Ambassador Thompson practiced law in Jamaica, East Africa, Dominica, The Bahamas, and Bermuda, and served as president of the Jamaican Bar Association. He received his early education at the Mico Teachers College, was a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University in 1947, and was later called to the bar at Gray's Inn (London).

A freedom fighter and Pan-Africanist, he was a leading member of the team of lawyers who represented the former leader of Kenya, Jomo Kenyatta, in the 1950s.

At the time of his death, Thompson was the President of the World African Diaspora Union, and resided in Florida.