We recently received an email (on 19th April 2014) from Daniel Fludgate who was searching for information about his father Christopher “Chris” Fludgate who had served as a constable in the Bermuda Police during the mid-1960’s.
The following article contains information kindly supplied by Daniel, together with information from our Bermuda Police Register. We would encourage anyone who worked with Chris to write their own recollections of him in the comments section below.
Young Constable Chris Fludgate in Bermuda
Chris Fludgate joined the Bermuda Police on 25th March 1963 as an experienced police officer. He had left the UK in 1957 to join the Toronto Metropolitan Police before coming to Bermuda. While serving here Chris served first in Eastern Division (St. George’s), and Western Division (Somerset), before being transferred to Central Division (Hamilton).
Daniel mentioned that his dad was involved in a riot while here in Bermuda, and our records indicate that he was treated for injuries received on 2nd February 1965 which was the date of the BELCO Riot on Serpentine Road in which 17 police officers sustained injuries.
Chris resigned from the Bermuda Police as of 5th August 1966, and returned to Toronto for a few years before eventually heading back to England in 1970 when he joined the Thames Valley Police in Buckinghamshire.
Chris and Hazel on their wedding day in 1976
In 1976 he married Hazel – also a police officer - and they had two sons, Matt and Daniel.
Chris and Hazel with sons Daniel (left) and Matt
Chris went on to become a Detective Inspector but tragically, he died suddenly while still serving in the Thames Valley Police.
Daniel writes, “No doubt because of his time spent in Bermuda, he maintained a life long interest in, and certain expertise on, Haiti. He was also a keen sportsman, following Arsenal like a religion, and coaching the local junior football and cricket clubs. Most people who met him seem to remember his very dry and quick wit.
Detective Inspector Chris Fludgate
“With service in three different countries, and for a total of over 30 years, dad was a police officer through and through. Perhaps it is no surprise then that I am also now a police officer working for the Metropolitan Police (must be genetic). “
Daniel has been serving in the Metropolitan Police for the past 6 years and is currently based in North East London, working out of Waltham Forest Borough.
The photos in this article have been kindly supplied by Daniel who would be delighted to receive any additional information about his father’s time in Bermuda.
An open letter to Daniel (and Matt)
I too worked with Chris at the St Georges end of the Islands. A brash 'cockney', whose main ambition was to obtain the job of St George's mess caterer when Foxy left for pastures new.
Definitely a popular guy who was a big friend of Pete Rose who then worked central CID and when Chris wasn't at the mess, he could usually be traced to the Gunpowder Cavern*, checking that the Becks was being kept at the correct temperature.
He once bragged that he almost fell asleep on his motor bike coming home along Kindley Field Road, but fell quiet when Sid Gregory and I bragged one better, that we actually had fallen asleep there, Sid twice I believe! - Oh that long last stretch on the way back from Hamilton and the mesmerising wire fence to your right and the gravel rash of the palms of my hand of which I still bear a trace!
A moment that Chris might have remembered for many a long day was the time when he was to discover that a fellow police officer had committed a quite outrageous burglary in St Georges.
The older officers in Bermuda might remember that PC Roger Taplin served time in Casemates for this offence. It seems that Roger was on a night shift when he found a window open at a local business office, through which he duly climbed and whilst a trespasser, stole a couple of cheques.
Two days later he was at the aforesaid Gunpowder Cavern when he got into a deep and drunken discussion with Chris about what could constitute 'the perfect crime'. To stress his point, young Taplin suggested that he might have personally committed such a crime and laid out his whole modus operandi of the event.
As Pete Rose was diligently pursuing the malefactor, it was only a couple more days before R.T. was banged up. (I wonder where he is now?) We all backed Chris in his dealing with the matter in the way he did, but I remember it hurting him sometimes.
He was a good man and I know you will both learn to live with your loss.
John McQuaid
NB I was ex-Met - LM warrant number 148663 - you won't find many much older!
* Editors Note - It was actually the Gunpowder Tavern but you had to travel through a cavern to get to the bar. It has been closed for several decades but the entrance is still there.