THE late L. Frederick Wade, leader of the Progressive Labour Party between 1985 and 1995, had rather a world-weary ? but not entirely incorrect ? view of Bermudian public life. "There is life after politics," he once said. "I learned that the hard way. At the end of the day people will still say: Freddie Who?"

In the last of a series of on the topic I am focusing on the political contributions of Mr. Wade and how his dedication to social and political reform helped to change Bermuda for the better.

Unfortunately as yet there is no definitive biography of the life of L. Frederick Wade and his impact on Bermudian society. But there are two splendid monographs produced by MP Dale Butler and Writer's Machine, and . Both works were published after the passing of Mr. Wade and were tributes to the man who felt that ultimately Bermuda would forget him.

Still it was a measure of the man who was fully aware of just what a thankless task it is to advocate political change in Bermuda that he still had the courage and fortitude to carry on regardless of widespread public indifference to his efforts.

Mr. Wade joined the PLP in the early 1960s and, like most black Bermudians at the time, believed the time had come for wholesale political reform in Bermuda. According to the profile in one of the Writer's Machine booklets: "Frederick Wade considered himself a proud 'Pond Dog', who grew up in the back of town and had attended Central School, now known as the Victor Scott Primary School.

He then attended the Berkeley Institute before going overseas to attend the Ottawa Teachers' Training College and Queen's University in Canada where he received a BA in Economics. Both endeavours held him in good stead when he returned to Bermuda, where he taught at his old Central School and later in politics he served as the PLP's Shadow Minister of Finance."

In many ways the back of town and the social problems associated with that area were symbols of what was wrong in Bermuda politically and racially at the time. There was a pressing need for great change in Bermuda's socio-economic structure.

In addition, Mr. Wade had been exposed directly to the concerns of working people in Bermuda. He had been a blue-collar worker himself. He had worked as a taxi driver, dock worker and construction worker before once again going overseas in the 1970s to train as a lawyer.

He believed that active involvement in politics was the only mechanism to ensure reform came about. To that end he threw himself into the political process in the '60s, a very turbulent time in Bermuda.

Mr. Wade became the chairman of the PLP in the run-up to the 1968 General Election, the first contested in Bermuda under the new two-party Constitution. It was also the first election which allowed a universal free vote. The old property ownership qualification for voting had finally been thrown out.

In the months preceding the election Bermuda had its first serious riots, civil disturbances which some would say caused the PLP to lose the election held later that year. Certainly it would appear that the Powers That Be believed the PLP was indirectly involved with the riots as Mr. Wade himself was briefly detained by the police under the suspicion that he had been involved with the violence on Court Street, which was at the centre of the social upheaval.

After that experience, Mr. Wade and other PLP Parliamentarians would never again attempt to pacify rioters by going into the street. Although the United Bermuda Party won the 1968 General Election in a landslide, Mr. Wade was among the ten PLP candidates elected as Members of Parliament.

During those days, even though the PLP was a force to be reckoned with in Parliament as the Opposition, much of its work took place outside of the House of Assembly. The PLP's chief goal at that time was the politicisation of Bermudians.

For it was clearly understood that the PLP could never win the Government until Bermudians understood what politics were all about. Mr. Wade did his part by talking about politics up and down this country and taking young PLP supporters on walkabouts in his Devonshire North constituency to teach them the fine art of door-to-door canvassing.

of my fondest memories from that period involves attending the grassroots political rallies and meetings that Mr. Wade used to organise. Mr. Wade, as the person in charge of party funds, was at his best when he had to gather funds for the continued work of the party.

If there was a large meeting with many PLP supporters in attendance, it was a sure bet that Mr. Wade was going to pass the hat twice during a time when wealthy political supporters were not exactly camping outside of the PLP headquarters with bags of political contributions.

Mr. Wade also proved himself to be an able Parliamentary debater in the many battles with the UBP.

But his greatest role was in the aftermath of the bitter political divide that occurred in the party in the mid-1980s over the question of Dame Lois Browne Evans' continued leadership. At the 1985 election it seemed that the PLP supporters showed their disapproval of the infighting by staying away from the polls en masse, allowing the UBP to win in constituencies they could never have hoped to take before then.

The result was that the PLP was reduced to a rump of just seven Members of Parliament and came close to fulfilling a boast made by former UBP leader Henry Tucker, who said one day he intended to hold all the seats in Parliament.

Mr. Wade had been a close confidante of Dame Lois Browne Evans and was the natural choice as the next PLP leader. The task that lay before him was daunting, for before him lay the struggle to reunite the party and get it ready to be in position to challenge the UBP for control of the Government.

Much has been made of Mr. Wade's leadership skills and how he was called upon to hold together a badly shaken and demoralised PLP in the aftermath of the political reversals of 1985. How did he do it? He was, in fact, a single-minded and determined political leader and in the Bermudian context, he had to be just that if he was going to survive the many setbacks and disappointments that come with being an advocate of political change.

From a personal point of view, as much as I admired L. Frederick Wade, as an important a political leader he was for Bermuda, I found myself in deep disagreement over his decision to call for a boycott of the John Swan Independence Referendum in 1995. I have always regretted the fact I was never able to mend fences with him before his sudden death.

Still I consider Mr. Wade to have been one of my political mentors. And as we approach the tenth anniversary of his death I cannot think of a more fitting tribute than this country issuing a stamp in his memory so that we may prove him wrong in that his country will never forgot him or his contributions to democratise Bermuda.