Russell Dismont

Who was Russell Dismont?

Russell Dismont was from a respected black Bermudian family of the time. Despite racial discrimination typical of that period, his father Albert Hilgrove Dismont had become a successful businessman and was the first black man to own a property and business in the totally white-owned city of Hamilton, Bermuda's capital. In 1988, his other son Cecil Dismont, OBE, MBE, JP became the first black Mayor of the city. In 2003, the road 'Dismont Drive' was named in his honour, in recognition of his service and the family's contribution to Bermuda.

Russell began his education at the Berkeley Preparatory School and the Excelsior Secondary School in his native Bermuda. He developed an early interest in literature, music, and art which he later pursued in the United States at the New York School of Art. A keen sportsman, he was a well-known tennis player and cricketer for St Georges Cricket Club, which he helped form. While studying law at the London School of Economics in England, he played for the University of London and once with Sir Garfield Sobers. During this period, he often socialised and talked politics with actors Earl Cameron and Sidney Poitier and the founding father of the Kenyan nation, Jomo Kenyatta.