Nelson Mandela was recalled warmly by veteran Bermudian politician Sir John Swan — who, now aged 78, took the occasion to reflect on his own mortality.

The former Premier told The Royal Gazette: “After apartheid was dismantled, I happened to be in the World Economic forum in Switzerland — I met Mr Mandela there when he came to discuss the apartheid issue, and I was privileged to be in his presence at that discussion.

Sir John heard Mr Mandela address the US Congress and attended a private breakfast where the South African leader spoke.

“When you meet a man like this face to face, whose values, philosophy and ideology are to bring humanity together and seek the common good — this can’t help but influence your thinking, and what you do,” Sir John said.

Mr Mandela was elected President of South Africa toward the end of Sir John’s time as Premier.

“It’s been a great privilege for me to have lived in this era, and to have visited Robben Island, to have seen the cell that he was in, the neighbourhood that he grew up in.”

Sir John said few could approach Mr Mandela’s stature as “a symbol of great integrity and commitment to humanity”.

“He was a humble, ordinary man. It inspired you to think what he had been through.

“Most people suffer, they manifest it — but he had the appearance as though he had never suffered,” Sir John said. “That whatever happened to him, he believed he had a purpose.”

He also recalled Mr Mandela as a man who smiled and appreciated “flashing moments of humour”.

Added Sir John: “At some stage, we all must pass. But that’s just the physical body passing.”

Quoting Shakespeare, he said: “‘The evil that men do lives after them — the good is often interred with their bones.’

“I hope that Mandela has contradicted that. The good he has done will leave a lasting and indelible impression on what it is that makes us human, caring, and kind to one another.”

Sir John’s career in politics concluded in 1995, when he stepped down as Premier in the wake of that August’s Independence referendum.

But his impression on Mr Mandela was evidenced when the statesman asked that year’s Miss Bermuda, Renita Minors, to pass on his regards during the Miss World Pageant in South Africa.