John Price

Our “Then and Now” articles are usually about former members of the Bermuda Police, but in exceptional cases we feature friends and former colleagues who we consider to be “honorary” Bermuda police officers!  John Price definitely fits this description and he and his wife Ann are regular attendees at the Bermuda re-unions held in the U.K. from time to time.

John  arrived in Bermuda on 4th May 1970, on the same plane that was delivering the England squad to the football World Cup in Mexico. He even made an appearance on  BBC news later with Bobby Charlton!

His future wife, Ann, had arrived here just a few months earlier, in February 1970, when she came to visit her brother, Stuart, who was working on Island.  Ann decided to stay for a while, getting a job as a secretary in the Bank of Bermuda Investment department. 

John came out to work at the Bank of Bermuda and he met Ann whilst there and asked her out a couple of times but was firmly rejected  -  until an offer of dinner and a show at the 40 Thieves received an acceptance!   The happy couple were married at St Paul's Church in Paget on 9th October 1971.  

While working at the Bank, John became good friends with Tom Gallagher and it was Tom who convinced John to come and  play with the Bermuda Police Rugby Football Club in 1971. Tom was John's best man when he and Ann married, and  Bill "the Butcher" Nixon was an usher. It was Bill who organized the recent reunion in the UK.

John was also responsible for Dave Walker coming to Bermuda, as they were flat mates at college together in Hertfordshire.

John had only started playing rugby in 1969 after being a cenre half in "the other game" playing for his county at school, and for Chesham United the year after they were in the Amateur Cup Final. John played regularly for the “Boys in Blue”, appearing in various positions but mostly in the backs, He was a talented kicker who  liked to play full back, but John says, “Tom G and I had a fierce rivalry for position and kicking duties but I learned so much from the ‘wee man’ who, I confess had far more ability and experience than me and was the backbome of the Police sides for many years, on and off the field.  John gave a tribute to Tom on behalf of his friends in Bermuda at his funeral in Ballylesson, Noorn Ireland on 18th January 2013. His widow, Helen, was very brave and held up well that day. 

In his spare time John was Public Relations officer for the rugby section, working with his old mate Johnnie "Sospan" Williams.

When he wasn't on the rugby pitch John played football for the Police under the shrewd management of the late, great Vic Richmond.

Ann and John left Bermuda in August 1977 for the UK, and they settled in Cuffley, Hertfordshire. John worked for the Council of the Stock Exchange and was then asked to set up a securities clearance facility for the Bank of Bermuda in London and later for Reuters selling screen based financial information. At the age of 50 John packed in office work and worked his way through lorry driving tests to be driving the large articulated lorries. He retired at 57 to go to Spain with Ann, to be with their daughter Emma. Since being in Spain John has been teaching English to the local unemployed (of which there are far too many) to enable them to get jobs in a tourism based town, and co-ordinating various facilities of a large cancer support charity in the Costa Blanca, both of which have been hugely rewarding to a volunteer in terms of results.

During his City days the long lasting friendships from John's Bermuda days were kept alive with the occasional glass, usually at Dai Thomas’s Restaurant, shared with Bermuda luminaries Bill Butterworth,  Ken Vanthal, Ivan Davies, Basil Haddrell, , Bill Nixon, Greg and David Lunn, and others.

John and Ann have two terrific daughters, Emma & Sarah.  Emma was born in Bermuda in 1976 and enjoyed many a match from her pram, along with all the other kids in the "squad".  She now has her own Estate Agency business in Spain and has two daughters, Amelie and Lola, along with her son Luca.

Sarah was born in Enfield, North London in 1979 and clearly has a great passion for swimming in which she competed successfully at the very highest level,  becoming a British and European champion, a World record holder in backstroke, and who participated in the 2000 and 2004 Olympics.  She now has her own swim academy in Birmingham, and has a son, Dylan.

Both John and Ann attended the very successful reunion held near Birmingham last year (2014).  They both enjoyed seeing all the "old" faces at the reunion and paid tribute to the fine organization skills of Bill Nixon. They look forward to the next one.

John and Ann have been great mates with Maurice "Moby" & Bron Pett since their earliest days in Bermuda and have met up with them in the UK and Spain several times. They came to stay with Moby and Bron in 1988 when visiting the USA, and they returned to Bermuda and stayed with them again in 2011.

During their latest get together Moby & Bron disembarked from a cruise ship in Barcelona and went to stay with John and Ann in Javea (opposite Ibiza, on the mainland), before going further south to see some relatives.

John still stays in touch with the likes of Bill Butterworth, Dai Thomas, Ken Vanthal, Bill Nixon, Dave Walker, Tom Chaser, Jeff Baker, Jimmy Duke (the New York "Mickey Mouser") Phil Every, Norman "The Raj" Rennie, and Sam Lewis from Teachers RFC..   He recently wrote to enquire if he could become  a member of Bermie ExPo and as far as our organization is concerned we are delighted to consider him as on Honorary Member.

The last we heard of John and Ann they had popped over to the UK for a Fleetwood Mac concert, met up with their daughter Sarah and her baby in Birmingham, and they all returned to Javea in June for a family get together.  Maybe that was not quite the last word.  John has since written to say "Peace now reigns!!"   As a devoted grandparent,  I appreciate exactly what he means!