Joe Tildesley relaxingRetired Inspector Joe Tildeseley of the West Midlands Police is currently on Island with his wife, Joan, visiting their daughter who has been living and working here in Bermuda for the past 7 years. Joe completed 30 years service in the West Midlands Police, retiring in 2002, and Joan is also a retired West Midlands Officer.
Joe is Secretary of the Birmingham Branch of the National Association of Retired Police Officers (NARPO) and while on Island he’s keen to write an article about our Bermuda Ex-Police Officer’s Association (ExPo) in their next Newsletter, and then write a bigger piece for the National NARCO magazine which is distributed to nearly 100,000 retired police officers.
On his arrival in Bermuda, Joe was looking to make contact with someone from our ExPo Committee to learn more about how we operate, and he is also keen to meet with our wider membership. With that in mind we arranged for Joe to meet with John Skinner, George Rose and myself at the Mariners Club on the afternoon of Thursday 21st November. Ideally, we would have invited him up to the Police Club where he could have been introduced to the regular Thursday afternoon crew! Unfortunately, the Police Club is still undergoing what appears to be quite substantial renovations.
Joe and Joan first visited Bermuda some 6 years ago at which time they were introduced to retired Supt George Rose, who kindly gave them a tour of the Island.
We had a great initial meeting with Joe and chatted about the history of the Bermuda Police; our connections with the UK through the recruiting of both trained and untrained police officers over the years; members of the BPS attending all manner of courses in the UK from basic training courses at Mill Meece in the 1950’s to Driving, General Duties, C.I.D, Crime Prevention, Special Branch, Narcotics and Command courses, and Bermuda calling on Scotland Yard to send senior detectives to assist in major investigations including murders.
Joe asked about our police pensions and was shocked to hear we haven’t had any increase whatever since 2011 which, with cost of living rises since then, means we are at least 20% behind the eight-ball before any future pension increases. Ironically, we were having this discussion about the total lack of any increase for police pensioners, and other civil service pensions, on a day when the Royal Gazette was reporting that a Salaries Review Board was recommending an 18.8% pay rise for M.P’s and Senators! CLICK HERE to read the report in the Royal Gazette.
Joe was particularly interested in those officers recruited from the UK who had served in the West Midland Police, or those Police Forces that were partly or fully taken over by the newly formed West Midlands Police in 1974. That applied to both George Rose who had served in the Birmingham City Police, and myself having serving in Bilston Division in the Staffordshire County Police located in the area of South Staffordshire known as “The Black Country” prior to coming to Bermuda because both were taken over by the West Midlands Police in 1974. WMP took over Birmingham City Police, parts of Staffordshire County, Warwickshire and Coventry Constabulary, and parts of West Mercia Constabulary.
There may be members of the West Midland’s Police NARPO who are “sufficiently long in the tooth” to remember those of us who served in the aforementioned Police Forces prior to the 1974 amalgamation, and we’re looking to put together a list with possible photos and brief details of any such colleagues. Here is our initial list of BPS officers who served in what is now the West Midland Pollce:-
Immediately following our meeting with Joe we were joined by Peter McNulty and his son Sean at the Mariners Club and all present had a great time reminiscing about the good old days as reported in our Keeping in Touch column. CLICK HERE to view the article.
Thursday afternoon Get Together - Mariners ClubIn the meantime, we understand that Joe and his Joan will be here on Island until the end of January, and we have made arrangements for Joe to attend our pre-Christmas lunch at Mad Hatters where he looks forward to meeting more of our ExPo members.
Joe had his first taste of golf at Belmont Hills today, having previously played several other courses on Island, and after the game he met up with Bill Butterworth, Mike Shaw, and Pete Borland at Divots, and was invited to join the Wednesday ExPo golfers while he's here in Bermuda.
27th November 2024