The junction of Rosemont Avenue and Serpentine Road in Pembroke is a meaningful one for retired superintendent, Andrew Bermingham.
“My lasting memory, even today, is standing at the junction, opposite Belco headquarters, and being surrounded by a hostile group of picketers. I recall being knocked out and then later on running towards Ian Davies. That road junction is a constant memory. I often drive by it.”
Fellow policeman, Mr Davies, suffered a massive head injury during the Belco Riots and was notoriously pictured in a Royal Gazette article of the day lying unconscious on the ground, blood pouring from his head.
While he survived his injuries, “he was never the same again,” recalled Mr Bermingham. “Ian was a man of great strength and there is no doubt about it that a lesser mortal would have died from the beating he took.”
‘TRULY FRIGHTENING’
Mr Bermingham, who is originally from Portsmouth, England, was a 23-year-old police constable on February 2, 1965, when the Belco Riots broke out, and had served in the Bermuda police force for eight months. Prior to this, he had been in the Northern Rhodesia Police for three years.
When he and his colleagues were sent to Belco that morning, the strike had been ongoing for two weeks.
“We were told things were getting out of control, and when we got there, it was obvious a lot of men were sitting on the wall encouraging the demonstrators,” Mr Bermingham said. “Within minutes, the picket line had doubled.”
Mr Bermingham was told to stand in the road to allow any non-striking employees to get into the plant. After helping a car through the gates, which was carrying a White man, who was a Belco employee, he became surrounded by “this mass of angry people”, which was “truly frightening.” He took out his baton, but someone threatened him if he used it. Then he was struck on the back of the head, knocked unconscious and later suffered a severe concussion.
“The police were sent down there totally unprepared,” he continued.
Mr Bermingham was one of 17 policemen injured that day along with a number of rioters. In reference to the latter, the official police report stated it was “impossible to accurately estimate their number as they left the scene before arrests could be effected”.
JUSTIFIABLE RESENTMENT
Aside from his fellow policemen, two people who stood out to Mr Bermingham while reflecting on that day were Emily Moss, a Belco employee, and the prominent civil rights activist and physician, Dr Barbara Ball.
Ms Moss, he said, “came out of the Belco offices and tended to the injured policemen and it was her actions that weighed against Dr Ball’s actions.” In the aftermath, Dr Ball was vilified for not doing more to help the injured but, said Mr Bermingham, this was not accurate.
“There’s a photograph in the files of her actually standing over Ian Davies on an ambulance stretcher.”
While Mr Bermingham, now 83, has been deeply affected by what happened to him and his police colleagues, he believes the event was inevitable given the political and social situation at the time.
“Bermuda had come through the theatre boycott and 1959 dock strike with progress in race relations, but that was not nearly enough, as justifiable resentment rang deep,” he explained.
“Belco opened Pandora’s box. Workers had enough of White privilege and political control. The government totally underestimated the mood of working class Bermudians and Belco was a game changer of unparalleled dimensions. If it had not happened then and there, it would have occurred somewhere else.”
RACIST POLICIES
The Belco strike occurred following the break-down in negotiations between the Bermuda Industrial Union, representing 87 outside-plant employees who were almost all Black, and the management of Belco, who were White. Not only was the union seeking recognition, but, wrote former BIU president, Ottiwell Simmons, in his book Our Lady of Labour: “The outside plant employees accused the company of practising unacceptable racial discrimination policies. For example, locker rooms, toilets and wash-up rooms were racially segregated.”
Mr Bermingham said: “Belco remains the constant reminder of an event which could have been avoided if people in high places had realised they had a duty and opportunity to make amends for inherent racism and financial power.”
SHAKE HANDS AND NEGOTIATE
Nothing demonstrates this outlook more than his own attitude towards the men who hurt him on that day – Samuel Pennington Samuels and former Cup Match cricketer, Kenneth Ball.
“In later years I got to know them quite well and there is a photograph of me and Samuel Pennington Samuels down at the Belco riot site in about 1980,” Mr Bermingham said. “It was a question of a hearty handshake and let bygones be bygones.”
He is also proud to enjoy a good relationship with the BIU: “The fact that I’m welcomed at the Union is really my epitaph in that respect.”
He also believes that Lord Martonmere, the Governor at the time, was right to pardon those who were imprisoned: “I think he realised that there had to be give and take on both sides.”
It wasn’t just Mr Bermingham who made efforts to build bridges in the aftermath of the Belco riots. To say thank you for the care his son had been given, and in order to help rebuild the community, Mr Davies’ father, a football fan, donated the Friendship Trophy to the island, which is still played for today.
“There was a lot of acrimony and fingerpointing after, a lot of anger expressed but, at the end of the day, what course do you take?” asked Mr Bermingham.
“You either shake hands or you ignore people. If you can’t negotiate, can’t come to terms with what we’re dealing with, can’t understand both sides of the fence, then we’re doomed. Negotiation is the only way forward.”
Andrew Bermingham served in the Bermuda Police force for 30 years, retiring as a superintendent in 1994. From 1984 to 1994 he was head of special branch.
