Gerald Collett, who served in Bermuda as Attorney General, Puisne Judge and as a member of the Court of Appeal, has died after a long illness. He was 77.

Mr. Justice Collett served on the Court of Appeal last year in the culmination of distinguished career legal public service.

As Attorney General of Bermuda between 1973 and 1981, he oversaw the prosecution of a number of major cases, notably those of Erskine Durrant (Buck) Burrows and Larry Tacklyn for the Shopping Centre murders for which they were hanged. While in Bermuda, he also helped to found the Legal Aid Committee.

He then served as a Puisne Judge between 1983 and 1987 before being appointed Chief Justice of the Cayman Islands.

Sir James Astwood, the former Chief Justice and President of the Bermuda Court of Appeal, said he first met Mr. Justice Collett when he returned to Bermuda from Jamaica as Senior Magistrate and later worked with him as Solicitor General.

He said: ?I had him with me on the high court as a Puisne Judge and he was a competent judge at that time until he left to become Chief Justice of the Cayman Islands.?

President of the Court of Appeal Edward Zacca, who also served with Mr. Justice Collett on the Cayman Court of Appeal, said: ?He was a very distinguished jurist and was well respected by the Bar for his well reasoned judgments and decisions.?

Mr. Justice Collett was born in Britain in 1928 and attended Cheltenham College before reading law at Trinity College, Oxford. After completing his national service in the Royal Air Force Education Branch from 1949 until 1950, he was called to the Bar of England and Wales in the Inner Temple in 1951.

In 1953 he married Jill Hodder and they moved to the Nyasaland Protectorate (now Malawi) as a Crown counsel and remained there until 1960.

He then worked for the John Hilton Bureau, which answered questions from readers of the News of the World on a vast range of issues, including legal matters. He then went abroad again in 1963 to become Solicitor General of the Bahamas, a post he held until 1970 when he became Attorney General.

Mr. Justice Collett became Attorney General of Bermuda in 1973 when the Bahamas achieved Independence and held the post until 1981. After two years in private practice with Conyers Dill and Pearman he joined the Supreme Court in 1983 as a Puisne Judge where he presided over a wide range of cases before accepting the post of Chief Justice of the Cayman Islands in 1987 where he and Mrs. Collett lived until 1991 when they retired to Ireland. However, he remained in touch with the law, acting frequently as an arbitrator and advised many Caribbean governments on constitutional and legislative drafting issues. He was appointed to the Cayman Islands Court of Appeal in 1995 and remained on the panel until this year.

Mr. Justice Collett became a Queen?s Counsel for the Bahamas in 1971 and was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the Queen?s Honours in 1980. His wife Jill, the author of ?Bermuda ? Her Plants and Gardens, 1609-1850?, and an active member of the Bermuda National Trust, died in 2001. He married Mollie Huth in 2003 but was bereaved the same year when she passed away.

He is survived by son Robin Collett and daughter Lucy Prescott. Chief Justice Richard Ground, who appeared before him when he was Attorney General of the Cayman Islands, said: ?He was a very well respected Chief Justice in Cayman and he was so highly thought of there that when he retired as Chief Justice they invited him to join the Court of Appeal and he was on the Cayman Court of Appeal until his death. He was a fine judge and a clever man and had a great sense of fairness. He brought common sense to the Bench but was also capable of being very intellectual in his approach.?