Great Sounds
I thought it appropriate at this time to show one particular photograph in our "Who, Where and When" column. There was no prize for guessing what this group did whenever they got together, but we wanted you to tell us where and when it was taken, and provide us with all of the names of those present? It is, of course the excellent Bermuda Police Choir and as stated by Terry Cabral, it was taken in front of the main door of Government House. We are still not sure of the exact date (can anyone assist?). We would also like to know, if possible, why the Choir was gathered at GH that day.
(l-r) "Ed Bailey, Fred Beach, Cal Christopher, Howard Dill, ? Lewis, Reese Bartley, Hubert Simmons, Dennis Ramsay, Norrell Hull, Mike Phillips, Dai James, Cecil Smith, Leon Bean, Willy Bourne, Westmore Bean, "Brinky" Tucker, "Bongo" Williams, Lenny Edwards, Andy Maule, John Harvey, Lynn Hall. Hope I was of some assistance. Thank you. Good evening gentlemen."
The only person Norrell had a problem with was the first name of P.C. Lewis who was correctly identified by Dave O'Meara as Lyndon Lewis, despite the fact that Dave wrote his answers while still under the effect of a New Year's Eve hangover!
In view of the fact that we had all of the choir members correctly identified so quickly, I decided to publish one more photo of the Police Choir (see below) , to see how many in this much larger group can be identified, and to establish if possible, the date it was taken. If you don't know where it was taken then you have never been to Bermuda!
The first copy I had of this photo was of quite poor quality and did not reproduce very well, but I found a slightly better copy, and after enhancing it I believe it should be possible to identify most, if not all of those present, although I see several people who I never saw actually singing with the choir. Again, it would be interesting to know why this photo was taken and if they were all active choir members?
I have added two blow-ups of the photo and have numbered each person in the blow-up photos for your reference when naming those present. Since publishing this photo we are 99% sure of the identity of everyone in the birdcage anbd will add their names to the caption as soon as possible.
How many bobbies fit in a birdcage?
BLOW UP 2
Editors note - The reason for wanting to publish photos of the Police Choir at this time is that retired Inspector Hubert Simmons, one of the founding and most stalwart members of the choir, passed away a few days ago in his 90th year, and was buried on the day we published this article. Hubert will be fondly remembered by all who knew him.
