Sir George Paterson, OBE,; born December 3, 1906, died January 24, 1996

SIR George Mutlow Paterson, who has died in his 90th year, was born in St George's, Grenada, and typified the old ``plantocracy'' of Scottish ancestry that used to be so widespread in the Caribbean. He was descended directly in the male line from Dr George Paterson (1761-1852) who sailed from Aberdeen in 1784 to settle in Grenada.

Not only was Dr Paterson educated at Aberdeen (Marischal College, MA 1779-1783), so also were his five sons. All his male descendants were planters who remained on the island, though others like Lt-Col George Paterson, First Royal Scots (1842-1909), returned to Britain. Sir George was educated at Grenada Boys' School; in 1924 he won the Island Scholarship to St John's College, Cambridge, and studied history there. After Cambridge he joined the Colonial Service, and was appointed to the Nigerian Administration in 1929.

Called to the Bar (Inner Temple) in 1933, he two years later married Audrey Morris, daughter of Major C C B Morris, (chief of the London Fire Brigade) at Southwark Cathedral, the unusual guard-of-honour being made up of firemen with raised fire-axes.

With a strong sense of moral rectitude and loyalty, he served in various African colonies, retiring after 32 years' service as a Chief Justice.

Paterson was appointed a magistrate in Nigeria in 1936, and Crown Counsel, Tanganyika, in 1938. When war was declared in 1939, he joined the 6th King's African Rifles, and in 1940 at the Battle of Namuruputh, was wounded.

As Lt-Col George Paterson he was awarded the Military OBE in 1946, the same year as he was appointed Solicitor-General for Tanganyika; in 1949 he became Attorney-General for Sierra Leone, and QC in 1950. He was Attorney-General of Ghana from 1954-57 and later the Chief Justice of Northern Rhodesia where, in 1959, he was knighted.

He much enjoyed his time in Africa and, when not working, was a good big-game shot, played tennis and polo, and enjoyed fishing.

Returning to Britain in 1961, he pursued his fascination for genealogy. He was descended from Le Chevalier (Augustin) de Suze, Knight of the Royal and Military Order of St Louis, who was a leading figure in Fedon's Revolt when the Governor of Grenada, Ninian Home (direct ancestor of John Home-Robertson, MP), was murdered.

Sir George was also a kinsman of John Paterson, Archbishop of Glasgow (1632-1708), and had hoped to substantiate his claim to the dormant Nova Scotia baronetcy of Patersons of Eccles, County Berwick (created July 2, 1687, and dormant since 1782).

Sir George, a tall, slender, and upright figure with fair hair and piercing blue eyes, was modest and reserved with strangers but when relaxed had a delightful sense of humour. In a long and eventful life he had witnessed poignantly the independence of the territories of Nigeria, Tanzania, Ghana, and Zimbabwe, and of his little island home of Grenada in what had been the British West Indies.

Although fiercely proud of his Scottish ancestry, Sir George typically spent more years abroad than in Britain; moreover, after a lifetime in the tropics, he chose to retire to the warmer climate of the south of England.

He is survived by his widow, Audrey; a son, Nicholas George (a planter in Kenya with the Glasgow firm of James Finlay & Sons); and two daughters, Anita and Jane - the latter married to Timothy Clifford, director of the National Galleries of Scotland.