Our Ex-Bobbies annual pre-Christmas lunch was held at Mad Hatters restaurant in the Mariner’s Club on Tuesday 5th December 2024, thanks to the organizational skills of stalwarts Bill Butterworth and Dave Cooper.
The dining room was packed to the gills with a total of some 45 former bobbies, including three from “abroad” (more about them in a moment). There’s always a “buzz” at these events which have been going on for as long as anyone present could remember. And judging from the atmosphere, the camaraderie, the excellent menu, and top-class service thanks to Ed Barnes and his staff, a good time was had by all.
Gerry Lyons, Phil Scarcliffe and Wayne Perinchief
This year we had three “attendees” from overseas. Two of our former colleagues, Roger Brydon and Phil Scarcliffe, joined us at the lunch. Roger was on one of his regular visits to the Island while Phil has recently re-domiciled back here.
Our third overseas attendee was a visitor from the West Midlands Police - retired Inspector Joe Tildesley who is Secretary of the Birmingham Branch of the National Association of Retired Police Officers which has over 2,000 members. Joe and his wife, Joan, who is also a retired West Midlands police officer, are presently visiting their daughter who lives here, and Joe is planning to write an article about his Bermuda visit for the Birmingham Branch NARPO newsletter. CLICK HERE to see a previous article we have published about Joe’s visit in our Latest News column.
Joe chatted to quite a few of the guys at our lunch and was interested to know many of us had previously served in other Police departments elsewhere. For that reason we’ve produced below a quick list of our attendees together with their previous police service, or country of origin which might also be of interest to our own colleagues.
On a sad note, Bill asked for a moment of silence for those of our colleagues who passed away during the past 12 months. They are Steve Dunleavy, Mike Cherry, Graham Alderson, Braxton Stowe, Tony Smith and Darren Marcano.
On a more positive note, Bill pointed out that although we wouldn’t be entertained this year by “Fast Eddie” Davies who revels in joke-telling when he happens to be on Island for this gathering, but we were about to be treated to a musical interlude by our good friend John Dale.
John gave a moving rendition of “Let there be Peace on Earth”, after which he serenaded Joe Tildesley with a rendition of “Bermuda is Another World” accompanied, with a little encouragement, by some of our attendees who had been members of the Police Choir, although it has to be said the accompaniment also included voices that clearly had never sang in a choir of any description!
When asked about this year’s event Bill said, “I think it went off smoothly, it‘s always good to see former colleagues that you don’t come across in the normal course of your day. Our thanks to Ed Barnes and the rest of the staff at Mad Hatters, the food was really good and service good as usual. Also thanks to John Dale for the impromptu concert. ”
Bill pointed out that our two elder statesmen at the lunch were Wayne Perinchief and Stan Francis who were both born 83 years ago in 1941.
LIST OF ATTENDEES
Here’s our list of attendees with their former police forces or countries of origin. Experienced police officers recruited abroad – from either the UK or the West Indies would normally undertake a two week Familiarisation Course on arrival in Bermuda. Overseas recruits with no prior police experience, together with Bermudian recruits would attend 3 month Basic Training Courses along very similar lines to those in the UK.