The Committee has asked me to compile a Master List of men and women who had previously served as Police Officers in the Bermuda Police Force, now the Bermuda Police Service. They seemed to think that my computer expertise may be assist in this task.
I was given several lists compiled by former Inspector David Cook, former Detective Constable David Cooper and others.
Thus began a very interesting and time consuming task. One list had first and last names and dates of birth; another had first and last names and date of appointment and date of last working day; another had names and addresses. And they all had different Sort Orders – one by last name, one by date of birth, one by date of appointment and so on. And they all have to be merged together.
The first challenge was that these were mostly printouts, so they needed to be scanned and converted into a digital format. A relatively simple but time consuming task until you are faced with a list which has notes written on it, usually in the body of the print on the page. Optical Character Recognition software does not like that. It causes the software to make wild guesses as to what the character (letter or number) is supposed to be.
This gives rise to one of the lighter sides of this sort of task. The suggested words can sometimes be a source of merriment if the software provides an apt but erroneous name to one of our former colleagues. I will not give examples so as to spare their blushes. Suffice to say my current working list has 1995 names on it, so I have had a few smiles
I have always had a passing interest in history and have spent many hours compiling my family tree for the benefit of my grandchildren for when they are older. It has given me an insight into the biographical data that is now available on the World Wide Web.
When I saw that we only had the Last Name and Initials of three of our former Commissioners I started researching them. Here is some information that I found:
BETTINGTON D.R.
Mr Bettington’s records were the most extensive and can be found at https://www.batharchives.co.uk/sites/bath_record_office/files/LAN%20Section%204%20Rows%20K-X_0.pdf
This is a long .PDF file but using CTRL-F and inserting Bettington in the search window will reveal three pages of information including information on his wife and children. Apparently Mr Bettington was born in Petermaritzburg, Natal Province, South Africa in 1879. His family returned to England when he was a youngster but he is recorded as having attained the rank of Sergeant with Kitcheners Fighting Scouts a Boer War unit raised in Pretoria, South Africa. He was wounded in action on 31 March 1902 whilst serving with the unit.
The website notes that Mr Bettington later went on to serve as Inspector-General of Police, Gold Coast Colony (now Ghana). It also includes an article by Mr Bettington entitled A POLICEMAN'S DAY which describes some preparations and the departure of a Police Detachment in support of the Army a week before the Great War started.
He was appointed Commissioner of Police in Bermuda from 01 July 1927 until 30 June 1933 when he retired from Public Service and went to live in Bath, England.
By a strange coincidence the next entry on the website refers to General Sir Louis Jean Bols who is also buried in Bath and was Governor of Bermuda 1927–1931.
HENDERSON R.G.
Mr Henderson served as Commissioner in the early 1950’s. A set of six medals including Member of the Victorian Order which is given as a personal gift of the sovereign, The Kings Police Medal and the Colonial Police Medal for Meritorious Service were auctioned for UKP 820 on 23 September 2005 by Dix Noonan Webb of Piccadilly.
Their website https://www.dnw.co.uk/auction-archive/past-catalogues/lot.php?auction_id=72&lot_id=116250 shows a picture of the medals and references to Mr Henderson’s service in West Africa before coming to Bermuda
STOURTON I.H
Ivo Herbert Evelyn Joseph Stourton was Commissioner of Police from 1933 to 1939. He was born in England in 1901. To date I have not found out anything about his professional life before coming to Bermuda, however he was the Grandson of Charles Stourton, 19th Baron Stourton. (See Burkes Peerage website page at https://www.red1st.com/axholme/familygroup.php?familyID=F538805&tree=Axholme)
After leaving Bermuda he served in various senior Police roles in Aden, Uganda and West Africa. He rose to the rank of Inspector-General, Colonial Police in 1957. He was knighted in 1961. More information can be found at http://www.thepeerage.com/p5441.htm#i54410