Belco Riots: 60 years on, a former officer looks back
This was the headline in an article published by the Royal Gazette on 1st February 2025, in which retired Superintendent Andrew Bermingham gave his account of the events which took place 60 years ago, on February 2nd 1965, on Serpentine Road in Pembroke where BELCO staff and their supporters were picketing the BELCO entrance in their efforts to receive union recognition.
Andrew described to Assistant News Editor, Jonathan Bell, his recollections of what transpired on that fateful morning which resulted in 18 unarmed police officers sustaining injuries, including P.C. Ian Davies who sustained serious head injuries form which he never totally recovered.
Andrew Bermingham, who was a young P.C. at the time described what took place that morning. “It was a terrifying experience,” Mr Bermingham recalled. “That day in February 1965 is embedded in my mind — I often get flashbacks about it.”
“It was a free-for-all for many who drifted down there looking for trouble.”
He remembers trying to help a car with a white Belco employee being driven to work by his wife get through when the demonstration boiled into violence.
Mr Bermingham said: “The union always claimed police started the February 2 riot.
“I was trying to get a car containing a man and his wife in to the parking lot. If that’s starting a riot, then I plead guilty.
“There was no teargas at that stage, no riot shields, nothing. Just policemen wearing bobby helmets observing the crowd.”
After taking a blow to the head, Mr Bermingham broke free. An iconic photograph shows him rushing to a fallen officer, Ian Davies, collapsed and bleeding heavily.
He said: “There were lives changed. Ian Davies was the most badly injured. George Linnen and Tim Burch probably saved his life.”
Mr Davies, who died in England in 2005, was awarded the Colonial Police Medal for gallantry. His skull had been fractured with a golf club.
CLICK HERE to read Andrew’s account in more detail as published in the Royal Gazette. The article contains the names of the 17 other police officers who sustained injuries that morning.
On Sunday afternoon, 2nd February 2025, Andrew and myself were invited to Devonshire Recreation Club to participate in a 60th Anniversary Reconciliation Gathering, with approximatey 60-80 people in attendance. For those not aware of it, after the violence of that morning in 1965, many of the picketers and the crowd who had been in attendance at BELCO marched to Devonshire Rec after the violence, many armed with a variety of weapons, and they were apparently anticipating that the Police would attack them at "The Rec". Meanwhile, Police Commissionmer George Robins, on hearing that a large and hostile crowd were marching towards Prospect, was preparing his men for a possible attack on Police Headquarters located just a few hundred yards from The Rec which fortunately never came. Sanity prevailed and there was no more violence that day.
It seemed ironic that Andrew and I were invited by Glenn Fubler to attend “The Rec” on this 60th Anniversary, and we had no hesitation in doing so because times have certainly changed since 1965. In fact there was a very friendly atmosphere at the gathering where we were both made most welcome, and were both given an opportunity to share our memories of that momentous morning.
I gave some brief remarks as follows:-
“It hardly seems possible that it’s 60 years ago today since the BIU workers and members of the Police Force, including myself, faced off against each other outside the entrance to BELCO on Serpentine Road.
I can still remember the day like it was yesterday. I was a young P.C. - fresh out from England - and just to let you know briefly my background, I was the son of a coal miner who all his life had been a committed member of the Mineworkers Union and proud of that fact. Just as one small example of what the union did for the miners at my father’s pit, they fought and won the right for the mine owners to provide showers so that at the end of a shift working in filthy dust-ridden conditions underground all day, they could have a shower before coming home to their families.
I say that to let you know that both myself and other police officers had sympathy for the BELCO workers who were striking for the right for Union recognition, and I would say even more so when we afterwards learned of the conditions at BELCO such as the condition of their segregated toilets.
But I want to be clear that the group of about 20 constables led by Sgt Hilton Wingood that morning were not there to strong-arm the picketers. We were there to keep the peace, not in riot gear, but in regular uniform, and our sole purpose was to make sure the picketers complied with the picketing rules.
Fortunately for me, I had to leave and give evidence in a court case in Magistrates Court just a few minutes before the riot started and a group of the policeman I’d been standing with were attacked with all kinds of weapons while still being unarmed apart from the regular truncheons whistles and handcuffs we carried every day on duty. The riot squad didn’t appear until well after the violence started and 18 policemen had been injured - one of them very badly - with a variety of weapons.
Even though I was fairly new to the Island I was already aware of the racial disparity here in Bermuda, and there’s no question that the BELCO riot brought it into sharp focus and resulted in the start of positive changes that should have been made long before February 2nd – rather than after it.
I would like to think that we all learned valuable lessons from 2nd January 1965, and that the events of that morning clearly showed to all of us the urgent need for social changes in Bermuda. I believe that day was a catalyst for changes to come - and it truly was a momentous day in Bermuda’s history.
One thing for sure, I suspect that I wouldn’t have been welcomed here at The Rec on the morning of February 2nd 1965, but I had no hesitation accepting Glenn Fubler’s invitation to come here today for this commemoration of that momentous day in Bermuda’s history 60 years ago.”
Sure enough, both Andy and I were warmly received from start to finish.
Andy and I had previously attended an event held at a packed BIU Headquarters on the 50th Anniversary of the events of February 2nd 1965 which was also attended by quite a few retired and former police officers. CLICK HERE to read an article I wrote about that 50th Anniversary which also includes comments later submitted to our website by other police officers who were there on the fateful morning.
On a much lighter note here is a photo taken in, of all places, the Maternity Ward at KEMH on February 3rd 1965 which shows most of the guys who were injured during the riot, including David “Dave” Long who is lying on the bed being cheered up by the centre-fold from a popular magazine during the 1960’s!
