the Island's top public servant yesterday.

As his wife Vera, twin daughters Judith and Helen, and numerous other relatives and dignitaries looked on at Government House, Mr. Mills was sworn in as Cabinet Secretary by the Governor Lord Waddington.

Mr. Mills succeeds Mr. Kenneth Richardson, who retired for health reasons in February after 28 years in the top job. He has been assistant Cabinet Secretary since May of 1989, and acting Cabinet Secretary since May of 1992.

"I would hope that I would be able to certainly emulate the fine example that (Mr. Richardson) has set,'' Mr. Mills told The Royal Gazette .

As Cabinet Secretary, Mr. Mills is responsible for overseeing and managing the public service. He is also principle policy adviser to the Premier, chairs several committees, and acts as secretary to the Cabinet in the sense of recording minutes at meetings.

The job, which pays $105,000 a year, "really is a multi-faceted one,'' he said. "It's the kind of job that happily for me provides a tremendous mixture of interest, variety, and stimulation.

"No two days are ever alike.'' Although he works extremely closely with the Premier and Cabinet, the Secretary's role is a non-political one. It is not intended that top civil servant jobs would change if the party in Government did.

But politics and policy advice cannot be divorced entirely, Mr. Mills said in an interview.

The civil servant defines options, "indicates the advantages and disadvantages there may be in relation to particular courses of action,'' and may recommend a preferred approach, he said.

The final decision was the Minister's. While it could be influenced by political considerations, "those political considerations are not the first consideration of the civil servant.

"That is not to say that civil servants will not have a sensitivity to the political nuances of Government policy,'' he said. "Indeed, it would be highly appropriate for civil servants to point out to a Minister that a certain course of action may illicit a political consequence of which the Minister should be fully aware.'' Educated at Central School (now Victor Scott Primary School) and Berkeley Institute, Mr. Mills in 1964 went to work as a radio announcer at the Bermuda Broadcasting Company. He rose to programme director, then was seconded to the Virgin Islands in 1968, where he managed a sister station.

That is where he married and his twin daughters, now 20, were born. He returned to Bermuda in 1974 and worked two more years for the BBC before he was named Director of Public Relations for Government in 1976. After five years in that post he took a leave of absence to study law at the University of Buckingham in England.

Mr. Mills was called to the Bar of England and Wales in November of 1988, and to the Bermuda Bar a month later.

He had been working in the Attorney General's chambers during breaks from school when he was called to the Cabinet Office in 1987 and named assistant Cabinet Secretary in 1989.

Mr. Mills is a member of Ruth Thomas and Company, a theatre group devoted to keeping the Island's folklore and history alive. He is also on the Council of the Girl Guides Association, a trustee of the Grand United Order of Oddfellows and the Wesley Methodist Church, and a member of the Bermuda National Trust and the LCCA.

A trumpeter in the Wesley Methodist Church Orchestra, Mr. Mills recently finished a term as Worshipful Master of Broad Arrow Lodge (Freemasons).

PROUD OF DAD -- Mr. Leopold Mills II, sworn in yesterday as the Island's top civil servant, is congratulated by twin daughters Helen (left) and Judith, both 20.