Mr. Earle Seaton was just one of many Bermudians who gained greater fame abroad than in their own country.

Over the next few weeks Living will explore the achievements of some of them.

Mr. Earle Seaton, the son of a Bermudian carpenter whose legal career made him a figure of international repute, was struck down by a fatal heart attack in the streets of New York last August.

This gentle and family-loving man who was returning home to his wife of 44 years, died alone. And in a cruel twist of fate, the man who had devoted his life to the cause of human rights, was robbed as he lay dying on the sidewalk and left, unidentifiable, just another "John Doe'' in a city morgue until his wife managed to trace him.

Mr. Seaton was certainly respected in Bermuda. He served as Puisne Judge of the Supreme Court from 1972 until 1978 when, among other cases, he presided over the murder trials of Larry Tacklyn and Erskine (Buck) Burrows.

But it was his overseas career, much of it spent in the then newly independent countries of Africa, earned him a degree of recognition that is perhaps still not fully appreciated in Bermuda.

As Tourism director Mr. Gary Phillips observes, "I find it disturbing that the Tanzanian ambassador came here in person to speak at his memorial service in December, yet a disappointing number of people attended and relatively few of Bermuda's leaders came to pay their respects.'' Mr. Phillips feels that at a time when the community needs successful black male role-models, the late Mr. Seaton's achievements should be more widely acknowledged.

Perhaps the greatest of these achievements took place in the early 1950s, when, as a young man freshly qualified as a lawyer, he eloquently fought the expropriation of tribal lands in colonial Tanganyika (now Tanzania) through the fledgling United Nations. Although the action was not successful, it set Tanzania on an irrevocable course towards nationalism and eventual independence.

His actions on behalf of the Meru tribe at the UN were immortalised in a book, Blood On Our Land, by leading Tanzanian writer, Ismael R. Mbise, whose used the phonetic spelling of his name, "Loya Siiton'' and describing him as the man "who was born in a distant country where the white men were also said to have been born''.

Mr. Seaton, who obtained a doctorate and taught international relations at the University of Southern California in the early '60s, became a High Court judge in Tanzania, served for ten years as the first black Chief Mr. in the Republic of Seychelles and, for the last two years of his life, as a judge of the Supreme Court of Uganda.

Mr. Seaton was also the author of numerous legal and political papers pertaining to Africa and was an acknowledged expert on the international law of the sea. He became a well-known figure at the UN.

Earle Edward Seaton was born in Hamilton on February 29, 1924.

Mr. Arnold Francis QC, a life-long friend who attended kindergarten with him, and went on to share classes at Victor Scott (then Central School) and Berkeley Institute, remembers him as "very smart, academically. He was always top, or very near the top of the class even though he was two years younger than the rest of us''.

Although he was never a "robust type'', Mr. Francis recalls that his academic distinction went hand-in-hand with a "discreet sense of fun'' that never deserted him.

Dr. Marjorie Bean, who became a friend of the man she had taught as a boy at Berkeley, agrees that Earle Seaton was "a brilliant student''. She also remembers that he displayed the same "gentlemanly'' qualities as a young student that he was to show as a man.

Lawyer Mr. Ian Kawaley, whose family were long-standing friends of Earle Seaton, acknowledges the great influence he had on his life, especially when he joined the Chief Justice in the Seychelles for a two-year period of post-graduate work.

"He was held in very high esteem there. I got to know him very well, then,'' he says, recalling how he loved to help and encourage young people: "But in a non-forceful way. He would point out the alternatives. He was very modest and unpretentious and would never talk about his achievements.'' Asked why he thought Mr. Seaton had conducted most of his career abroad, Mr.

Kawaley points out that when his friend and mentor qualified in 1948, London was fast becoming a melting-pot for Africans studying law there before returning to become the future leaders of their independent countries.

"He was personally invited to go to Tanzania by Julius Nyerere, in my opinion, the most outstanding leader in sub-Saharan Africa, at a time when they didn't have a single indigenous lawyer.'' Mr. Kawaley points out that today, Tanzania has a university with a law faculty (Bermudian lawyer Mr. Philip Perinchief studied there) that produces enough lawyers for the whole population of 16 million people.

"I think he went out there just as African nationalism was developing and found that, at that time, he was accepted far more readily there than as a Bermudian in Bermuda.'' In Mr. Kawaley's view, Mr. Seaton found that, even though Nyerere was an authoritarian, the struggle for a national identity was one that the young lawyer could identify with and felt he had to be a part of that movement.

"I think he also liked living in a society where racism, as he knew it in this part of the world, was not really an issue. He could get on with his work, which was mainly concerned with post-independence legal problems.'' Mr. Stanley Morton MP got to know Mr. Seaton during his tenure as Puisne Judge in Bermuda.

"Our fathers were friends and his sister was my teacher. But we became close through our membership of St. Paul AME Church. He had belonged to the church all his life and I believe he was a talented violinist in his earlier years there.'' Now Mr. Seaton, who helped set up the Richard Eve Scholarship to further the education of young Bermudians, is to have a Scholarship Fund set up in his name.

Mr. Morton says the fund is still in the planning stages but it is hoped a scholarship will be established to encourage studies in the fields of international law, international relations or arbitration.

Adds Mr. Morton: "If anyone is to be recognised as a role-model for our young people, it would have to be Earle Seaton.'' TOP JUDGE -- The late Mr. Earle Seaton, who presided over the Tacklyn/Burrows murder trial, is seen here greeting Mrs. Lois Browne Evans, who defended the pair.