A WEEK ago we began a series on the UK-based Bermudian-born stage, screen, television and radio actor Earl Cameron, saying how hale and hearty he is beginning his 90th year.

Earl was the youngest of the six children born to Arthur Jewitt and Edith Cameron of Angle Street, Hamilton. The family later moved to Victoria Street, near where the People's Pharmacy is now located.

It's hardly surprising he was attracted to the stage, because he was bred in the shadows and glitter of the Colonial Opera House. It was Bermuda's premier playhouse during the 1920s and '30s.

The Cameron clan were all clean-cut and most personable. The sisters were Jane, Rosie and Helen, with brothers Winslow and Arthur.

Earl was a typical Bermudian youth, whose greatest ambition after mastering the 'three Rs' in school was to get a job on one of the luxury cruise ships plying between Bermuda and New York.

When the Second World War was looming, the British Admiralty took over the cruise ships and converted them for war purposes.

One of those ships on which Cameron was working was diverted to South America, taking him far away from home, unlike most of his contemporaries, and after the outbreak, the liner ended up in Britain.

Unable to get a return passage to Bermuda, Earl sought work in a London hotel, as a dishwasher at the Strand Corner House. While in 1940 it was the only job a young black man could get, Cameron said it was a double insurance packet for him, as it guaranteed he would get something to eat. Bermudian hotel workers jokingly called kitchen work "pearl diving".

While working at the Strand, Cameron went along to watch a friend, who had a small part in the 1942 Palace Theatre production of . He was sufficiently impressed to suggest to the friend that acting was something he might like to try.

As luck would have it, an extra failed to show for a performance and so Cameron was allowed his first, and by his own account, 'petrified' venture into the spotlight.

Cameron secured his first speaking role as Joseph, in the 1942 Globe production of , mainly because his Bermudan accent sounded American. Other stage work followed and soon, armed only with a few elocution lessons, he began to compile what remains a substantial body of film and television work.

In his first feature, (d. Basil Dearden, 1951), Cameron became the first black British actor to secure a leading role in a feature film. Like his contemporary Sidney Poitier ? a native of Cat Island, Bahamas, though born in 1927 in Miami during a mainland visit by his parents ? Cameron's naturalistic style was in stark contrast to the often over-exuberant, caricatured style of black acting that had gone before.

Cameron's onscreen movement and gestures were sufficiently reserved to lend his characters, though quite diverse, an aura of subtle and abiding dignity.

In his understated portrayal of Johnny in , a wry smile seemed rarely from his lips, hinting at some private amusement beyond the understanding of his fellow characters. In (d. Brian Desmond Hurst, 1955), measured indignation sufficed where full-blown outrage may have appeared more appropriate.

Cameron never achieved widespread recognition in those early years, but that was probably more a reflection of social conventions than of his accomplishment or sheer ability.

BPSU president Armell is voted in as Caribbean head

A STRONG Bermuda delegation led by Bermuda Public Services Union president Armell Thomas evidently played their part well at the 36th annual conference of the Caribbean Public Services Association (CPSA) last week in Belize City.

The week-long conference was attended by more than 90 delegates from public service organisations in the Caribbean.

At its conclusion delegates voted in the Bermuda leader as its new president and also agreed that Bermuda would be the venue of the 2007 regional conference.

The conference was held at the Princess Hotel and Casino in Belize City. Its theme was

Keynote speaker was the Prime Minister of Belize, Said Musa. The delegates also participated in a plenary session on and the role of public services in eradicating poverty, as well as sustainable development.

Delegates were drawn from 16 regional affiliate unions from the Bahamas, Barbados, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, Montserrat, St. Lucia and St. Vincent and the Grenadines as well as Bermuda.

Upon completion of official business delegrates were taken on a tour to Xunantunich, one of the world's largest Mayan ceremonial centres.

London revisited as Roderic collects his OBE

ODERIC and Shirley Pearman and family of Mariners Lane, Pembroke West, are back home after a fabulous overseas spell that climaxed in a visit to Buckingham Palace where Mr. Pearman was invested by the Queen with the insignia of his award as an Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (OBE).

Mr. Pearman was named in the Queen's New Year Honours for his wide-ranging community services, first and foremost in the public education system, and for more than 15 years after his retirement, as an instructor and manager in the private health insurance industry, as well as 24 years as one of the governors of the Berkeley Institute, including a period as chairman.

The Pearmans travelled to and from the UK in style, with their passage from Southampton to New York aboard the liner

For Roderic, it was a matter of London being revisited.

From 1956-59 he attended the University of London's Shoreditch College, qualifying for his Teacher's Certificate and Diploma in Education. One of his enduring friends at the college was John Mortimore, who later made his mark as a football professional with Southampton.

Mortimore arranged for a post-palace investiture luncheon for the Pearmans and other friends including Cherylann Rowling Spurway at Simpsons-on-the-Strand.

Mr. Pearman is a Justice of the Peace, an Honorary Fellow of the Bermuda College and, until last year, served a decade on the National Drug Commission, for a while as its chairman.

Mr. Pearman served in the Bermuda Militia Artillery and in 1963 was commissioned at 2nd Lieutenant in the Bermuda Local Forces. He was a long-serving member of the Defence Board. In 1976 he was credited with having reactivated the Bermuda Cadet Corps in local schools after suspension from the 1960s. He established a corps at Sandys Secondary School in 1963 and later at St. George's Secondary School where he was principal.

During Mr. Pearman's four-year tenure as chairman of the Berkeley Institute board of governors, he was instrumental in arranging the exchange of the sports arena with Bermuda Electric Light Company for the property the latter owned which forms part of the site on which the new multi-million-dollar Berkeley has been built.

In the same time-frame the Berkeley acquired the former Swanston Guest House property situated directly on its northern boundary.

and Shirley were married on July 23, 1964. A retired educator also, she was the daughter of the late Dr. Kenneth E. Robinson, Bermuda's former Chief Education Officer, and Mrs. Robinson. They have two sons, Scott Pearman, who is director of human resources for the Bermuda Hospitals Board, and Michael Pearman, an analyst and project manager at XL Corporation.

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