We recently received an email (on 19^th 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 25^th 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 2^nd 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 5^th 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.

The following information has been kindly provided by Pip’s wife Diane ‘Dee’ Carter who met and married Pip while both were working here in Bermuda. They clearly had a long and happy life together and we were delighted to hear from Dee.

"Peter “Pip” Carter was born on June 3 1929 in Altrincham, Cheshire, England and raised there. When he was 5 years old he was sent to boarding school  at "Ellesmere" which I believe is on the Welsh border, after which he did his National service in the Army in Cyprus.

He did his National Service in Military Police, and was posted to Ceylon during that time. After his time in the Army he returned to England and worked in his father's home-decorating business along with his only sibling, his brother John, who continued to run the family business for many years.

I don't know when the "Travel Bug" bit him,  but Pip applied for training in the Police Force and trained in England after which he was sent to Bermuda.  He met Jimmy Moir on the same plane on the way over, and they became good friends.  They arrived in Bermuda on 21^st September 1956, along with Mike Kelly.

(When asked about how Dee came to be in Bermuda she described how she had been attending college in the U.S. (she is American), and had a longing to travel so she was working a summer job in Banff, Alberta, for Canadian Pacific Railway Company. While there she was recommended for a job in Bermuda at The Castle Harbour Hotel which she accepted.)

I had been working at Castle Harbour for just over a year when Pip and I met at a social event. This was in late 1956 or early 1957.

My roommate while I was at Castle Harbour was a girl named Joyce who married Jack Dodge from ZBM.   While we were still single she and I and Pip would sometimes go late night fishing at Flatts Village off a flat rock next to the flamingo enclosure, One night we caught an electric eel which really scared us – that is Joyce and me.

I used to ride my Mobylette to St. George's every weekend to pick up fresh mackerel from a local fisherman who at the end of the day, after taking tourists out fishing using mackerel as bait, would kindly gave away what was left.

In early 1958 my mother came to Bermuda to check Pip out and look him over! I have to say my mother was very impressed with him. First meetings are so important!   He was the first Englishman she ever met. I thought she was going to keep him for herself!  Joyce and I used to laugh at them talking – my mother with her Southern drawl and Pip with his very English accent.  Joyce said, 'Just listen to them. Neither can understand what the other is saying!'

I have fond memories of Joyce. We were pregnant together or, as we used to say, “we threw up together”!  She had worked as a social hostess at Castle Harbour and then became a flight attendant on Bermuda’s one and only airline, which I seem to recall only lasted for about a year.

In October 1958, Pip and I left Bermuda for the U.S. and were married after Christmas, then left for “jolly-olde” England where we stayed for 3 months.  After my contract ended at Castle Harbour I had starting working at the Bermuda Telephone Company and left there to get married, but when we returned from England I got my job back at the Telephone Company. 

Pip had signed up for another stint in Bermuda, and we caught a boat.  I got off in New York  while Pip went ahead to find us a place to live,  in the Darrell's Wharf area on Harbour Road. I went to Alabama where my family was living at the time, then joined Pip at our new home." 

Dee doesn’t recall much about Pip’s sporting activities prior to him coming to Bermuda but she knows that he was a rugby player who played for and was Captain of the Bermuda Barbarians. 

John McCulloch has written to us to say that he remembers Pip very well for several reasons, including his handlebar moustache; his involvement with the Bermuda Barbarians together with two of John’s old Somerset mates, Harry Leman and Graham Holmes, with the latter being an outstanding player having had a trial for Scotland for the “Possibles v The Probables.  John also vividly remembers Pip for one other attribute, “He could drink a glass of beer without swallowing – he just poured it down!  At the Police Club people would buy his beer just so they could watch him!”

We don't have a photograph of Pip downing a beer without gulping but after reminding Dee of her husband's unusual skill she remembered still having this quart glass that he won by downing its contents in one swallow!

Pip's prized quart glass

Arthur Rose remembers Pip as a great character and an outstanding rugby player who also knew how to party.  Arthur confirms Pip’s unusual ability to down a pint of beer without taking a gulp.  (CLICK HERE for Arthur Rose’s ‘Then and Now’ article).

We also spoke with Mike Kelly who came out to Bermuda with Pip and Jimmy Moir.  Mike played in the same rugby team as Pip which was known as the "Barbarians" Rugby Football Club which later became the Police Rugby Club. CLICK HERE for comments from Mike Kelly published on 20th January 2014 in our "Keeping in Touch" column.

Another former Bermuda police officer, Brian Jones,  attests to Pip's all-round sporting ability and says he was also an excellent snooker player.

Dee kindly provided us with this copy of Pip’s membership card for the Bermuda “Barbarians” Rugby Football Club for the 1956-57 season and signed by a fellow policeman, J. “Taffy” Lewis.

"Pip and I had three sons—Peter (now 53) was born in Bermuda, Mark (52) and David (50) were born in the U.S.  I can still recall the time when I had just come out of hospital after Peter was born, and Pip was on duty driving with Mike Kelly who insisted that they stop to buy me a milk shake!

We left Bermuda in 1963 and came here to Houston where things were booming.  Pip met a (father figure) fellow Brit in the steam-ship business. He was hired as a steamship agent and quickly rose to be a vice-president of the company which had main offices in Houston and in New Orleans where we lived for two years.  The company also owned Texas Stevedores and Pip rose to be President of that company before forming his own Steamship Agency at the age of 60.

He had a very interesting job, travelling to Africa, Germany, Brazil and Japan as well as the west coast of the U.S.  He boarded ships, met and entertained the captains from various countries.  It was a hard “life” to give up but his health, unfortunately, was slowing him down and he sold his company and retired at the age of 72.

Sadly, Pip died on July14, 2003.

I’m very fortunate to have a wonderful family including two lovely daughters-in-law (I always wanted a daughter),  and three beautiful grandchildren whom I adore, Peter's son Sean (20),  Mark's son Cole (17) , and our beautiful Grace (13), Mark's daughter, the first girl in the family.