Bernie Pitman, Roger Kendall and Paul Singh

Vendal Bridgeman, Stan Francis and Louis Griffith

The Ex-Bobbies annual  pre-Christmas lunch held at Mad Hatters restaurant in the Mariner's Club is one of the most popular social events on our calendar.  This year's lunch was tinged with sadness because one of its founders, our good friend Dave Cook, along with another staunch ExPo member, Reese Bartley,  had passed away during the year.  They were both sorely missed.

  Dave Cooper and Bill Butterworth

Fortunately,  the other co-founder of the event, Bill Butterworth, with the assistance of Dave Cooper,  put on another great lunch on Thursday 7th December which was very well attended by over 40 of our ex-officers, with just a few guys having to miss it after coming down with the flu which is quite prevalent at the moment.

Steve Dunleavy, Carlton Adams, Rex Osborne, Mike Clebek and Pete Borland

Bill Butterworth, Dave Cooper, Bernie Pitman, Mike Clebek,

Mike Shaw, Roddie Barclay, Norman Wilson and Scott Pacheco

There's always a great atmosphere at the lunch which gives us an opportunity to catch up on our colleagues activities during the year, and to add to the occasion we had a surprise attendee -  Eddie Davies  -  who now resides in Georgia where he's really "gone to the dogs" as you can read in our recent "Then and Now" article on Eddie.  CLICK HERE to view it.  At past lunches prior to leaving the Island about 7 years ago, Eddie had always entertained us with his latest jokes and stories, and this year he was back on Island and back on form much to the delight of all present.

"Fast Eddie" entertaining the troops!

At our table we shared collective memories of past exploits, many of which can never be told to anyone who hasn't served in the BPS.  Perhaps we should have a section  of our website devoted to those exploits which can only be viewed by those of us who were there!  

Louis Griffith, Paul Singh, Oliver Bain,

Mad Hatters as in the past, proved to be the ideal venue for our lunch, and the food was excellent along with the camaraderie.  May this event continue for many years to come.

You can read more about our good friends Reese and Dave in our Hall of Fame column. CLICK HERE for the article on Rees, and CLICK HERE for the article about Dave.

CLICK HERE for the full photo album of this event.