With the death in New York on Monday of Angela King, Jamaica has lost one of its outstanding daughters and the world has lost a global citizen who served mankind with distinction.

It is an unfortunate fact that Ms. King - daughter of the late Canon R.O.C. King and brother of the late Peter King, past student of St. Hilda's and Wolmer's High schools and alumnus of the University of the West Indies - was not as well known as her father and brother and therefore would not have been widely recognised in Jamaica.

Yet, on the international stage, this woman, who was unabashedly Jamaican, even as she transcended national boundaries, did this country and the wider Caribbean proud as she advanced the cause of all humanity. Until she retired in 2004, she had for four decades served at the United Nations in several senior positions, leaving as special adviser to former United Nations Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, on gender issues and the advancement of women. She also chaired the U.N.'s inter-agency network on women and gender equality and oversaw the activities of the Department for the Advancement of Women, for which she had previously been the director.

While Ms. King's capacities in and knowledge of gender issues and human resource management - she once served as the U.N.'s director of recruitment and placement and director of staff administration and training - her skills at political management were also recognised and utilised.

Indeed, it was no small matter that it was Angela King that Mr. Annan tapped to be chief of mission of the U.N. Observer Mission in South Africa between 1992 and 1994. In that job, she helped shepherd South Africa through that tricky transitional period between the collapse of white minority rule and democracy.

She handled the assignment with aplomb and distinction, bringing credit not only to herself, but more importantly to the United Nations and the world community.

A sharp intellect, of quick wit and a sometimes sharp tongue, Angela King had a keen sense of herself without being self-absorbed or arrogant. She spoke with frankness and clarity, the arguments unclouded by favour, always underpinned by honesty.

As a gender specialist, she understood that liberating the capacities of women was also the liberation of all humanity. In that regard she widened the construct and notions of feminism, and her work for the United Nations benefited hundreds of millions of women around the world. But more important, it benefited us all.

It was the nature of the woman that during the illness which led to her death, Angela King remained uncomplaining and stoic, in love with ideas and logic and concerned with the enrichment of humanity.

Jamaica should be proud to have given her birth, the world happy to have embraced her.