Tapley Seaton: Former Governor General of St Kitts and Nevis dies at 72

Sir Samuel Weymouth Tapley Seaton, the fourth governor-general of Saint Kitts and Nevis from 2015 to 2023 has died. Seaton was born on 28 July 1950 and died on 29 June 2023 at age 72, five months after leaving office.

Seaton was born in Saint Kitts to William A. Seaton and Pearl Seaton.

He received his primary and secondary education from Epworth Junior School, Basseterre High School, and St. Kitts-Nevis Grammar School.

He attended The University of West Indies in Jamaica and received a Bachelor of Laws degree, which set forth his legal career.

He continued further studies with the Council of Legal Education (at the Hugh Wooding Law School, Trinidad, and the Norman Manley Law School, Jamaica), where he gained his Legal Education Certificate, and the University of Bordeaux in France, where he completed a Diploma in French.

Seaton joined the St. Kitts-Nevis Judicial Service and held positions such as Supreme Court Registrar, Provost Marshal, and Acting Additional Magistrate.

• He was also Crown Counsel for the Attorney General’s Chambers and the High Court Registrar in 1975.
• He was appointed Attorney General of St. Kitts and Nevis in 1980 and served until 1995.
• In 1988, he was appointed as one of Her Majesty’s Counsels (Queen’s Counsel) in the United Kingdom.
• Seaton was appointed acting governor-general on May 20, 2015, following the resignation of his predecessor, Sir Edmund Wickham Lawrence.
• On the suggestion of Prime Minister Timothy Harris, Queen Elizabeth II named him governor-general on September 1, 2015.

Seaton also performed other major roles serving on various boards, national committees, and organizations in various capacities which included director of SSMC, the Chamber of Industry and Commerce, and Frigate Bay Development Corporation; president of the St. Christopher Heritage Society (now The St. Christopher National Trust), the St. Kitts-Nevis Bar Association and the OECS Bar Association; and vice president for the Brimstone Hill Fortress National Park Society and the St. Christopher National Trust; chairman of Cable & Wireless (formerly SCANTEL).

It’s unclear who survives Seaton because there is no information on his wife and children online.

Source: abtc.ng