2025 is a special year for our colleagues who joined the Bermuda Police during 1975 because at some point this year those who are still with us will be celebrating their 50th Anniversary since signing on to the join the Police Service.
The first intake of 1975 occurred on 3rd February when, according to Police records six experienced officers from the UK arrived on Island. These were Paul Cranage, David Adams, Peter Giles, Alastair Dellanzo, David Cart and Peter Gimson.
They were closely followed on 4th February by a further nine experienced UK officers - Ian Kittle, John Wright, Alan Cleave, Gerald ‘Gerry’ Benson, Angus MacDonald, Alan Smith , Stephen Smedley, Graham Alderson and Michael “Mick” Ross.
These young men all attended the same Induction Course as shown in the photo below, then off they went to their various Divisions.
All of the March recruits attended Basic Training Course No. 19 held from March – June 1975.
Following the above two intakes, recruitment slowed down for the rest of the year, with just Etoile Wilson joining on 26th April as a civilian, Earlston Thompson on 8th October as a constable, and one very special civilian, Brenda Johnson, who joined us on 8th December.
So, in all we had 35 constables plus 2 civilians join during 1975.
Of those recruits from 1975 no less than 6 have written excellent articles for our “Then and Now” column which you can view here on our website, and all you need to do is click on their names under the photos below
Sadly, we've lost a few of our 1975 intake including Alan Smith, Dave Adams, Graham Alderson and Bob Anthony.
Alan Smith passed away in July 2015 (No photo available)
Dave Adams passed away in May 2020 (No photo available)
Graham Alderson passed away on 1st June 2024. We heard the sad news from his daughter that he passed away after long illness. Graham is pictured below with his colleagues in the Scenes of Crime Department where he spent much of his service.
UPDATES ON WHO IS WHERE AND WHAT ARE THEY DOING THESE DAYS!
Last month we received the following information from Paul Cranage about his arrival on Island:-
Dave Cart and I celebrate our 50 years “On de Rock” next month.
Fifteen of us joined the Service on 3rd and 4th February, 1975, and Dave and I are the last two still here. The remainder ventured further afield and sadly to my knowledge, Alan Smith, Dave Adams and Graham Alderson have transferred to the ‘Beat above!’
I’m still in touch with Gerry Benson as we were both Leeds City lads (later to become West Yorkshire Metropolitan Police in 1974 due to local government reorganisation and amalgamations).
I was Dave Cart’s Best man at his wedding and he reciprocated to be mine. Audrey and I are god parents to Dave and Sylvia’s three children, Helen, Melissa and Andrew. We remain the best of friends.
Dave, Sylvia, Audrey and I will be having a celebratory lunch on the 3rd and no doubt will have a few snaps for the album. I will be sure to send you one!!
We have since received the following photo from Paul and Dave. As most of you will know, Paul spent much of his career in Marine Section, but he’s now lagging way behind Dave in the number of hours spent at sea, because Dave and Sylvia are great fans of taking cruiseship holidays, and I’m trying to persuade Dave to put pen to paper and let us know where he and Sylvia have been on their travels around the globe, and maybe offer some advice on cruises not to be missed. When he not cruising the oceans Dave is keeping active cruising around Belmont Golf Course with the Bermuda Senior Golfers, and he's also active as Treasurer of our Beruda Ex-Police officers Association
Sylvia & Dave Cart and Audrey & Paul Cranage EDITORS NOTE -
We would be very interested to hear from all of the above who are still with us to hear where you are and what you’re doing these days, and we would be delighted if you could also send us a fairly recent photo of yourself, perhaps with your family.
We have heard that our good friend and colleague, "Fast Eddie" Davies has really gone to the dogs of late although we he claims he can still keep pace with the family of greyhounds he and Irene have adopted. What an appropriate choice of dogs"!
