Arriving at Millom Police Station Guy the Gorilla and myself were hanging out for a cup of tea. We were met by Dave Sword, a Constable stationed in Millom. He was holding a folded back Police Review with an advertisement for Police Officers in Bermuda. I knew from a very early age that Bermuda was my destiny and I had to go. The other thing that caught my attention was the salary. I was a single man as the advert said, I was under 25 and had served more than 2 years.That was it.

Dave typed out the letter requesting an application form, we had our cuppa and left back towards Barrow-in-Furness. It was 4am and snowing heavily as it does in mid January in the South Lakes. We slipped and slid all the way back to Barrow Police Station where we 'dumped' the mail, then back to Ulverston where we left the car. I drove home to the old Police House on Salthouse Road, Barrow. This was my place of residence, seeing as how it had been turned into a hostel for single men. Arriving home and going for a run, the Post Office, I knew would be closed, I only met the Postman and Milkman and after a hot bath it was time for my bed.

Getting up about 2pm it was off to the Post Office on Rawlinson Street to send my missive off to the sunshine Island. I started to think about Cumbria Constabulary and what I had a achieved. I'd served in three Divisions, there are only four, I'd got my class 1 Advanced Driving, a commendation from the Chief Constable and I'd been on traffic for three years, done my C.I.D. aide and done the Task Force bit, not to mention attending the riots in Liverpool and the miners strike in Yorkshire and Derbyshire.

When we were first sent on the strike they did not have the correct riot vans so we attended in Kenning rental vans and soon became known as the Kenning Constabulary. Of course you can guess who was volunteered to drive them. We were put in our accommodation in Ashby-de-la-Zouche on the border of Derbyshire and South Yorkshire. The place was damp and smelly, it had been used as a displaced persons home after the war, and judging by the smell had never seen a human body since.The lads all complained to me bitterly, as being the driver I was probably in charge of the van, the van too had no heating and that was another problem. In a car park one morning it was snowing and we were all freezing I rolled the window down and called across at our officer in charge whose name escapes me, I told him of our complaints, he flew at me calling me all sorts of names and marched off to the middle of the car park and called me over. I duly obliged and wandered along in a not too disrespectful manner, he was clearly not amused, I could tell by his language and tone of his voice. If he hadn't been a senior police Officer, a Cheif Inspector if memory serves me, but a person on the street on a Saturday night I would have locked him up for some kind of public order offence. Seeing as I had no idea where the nearest police station was I decided that discretion was the better part of valour. We were all soon moved and the heater in the van was mysteriously fixed. To celebrate some of the lads took me into Derby for the evening, for those of you who have ever been totally sober and driven a load of howling drunks around you will understand what I felt like. Anyway we were soon in the thick of the action supporting the Metropolitan Police at a pithead somewhere nearby. That was in March. It had started off as Brass Monkeys but gradually warmed up.

I was back in my Traffic car in June having received an Application Form from the Bermuda Police, in April I I mention now that it was a long time since anyone had gone from the Cumbria Police, as a matter of fact I would say that I was the first, as the Cumbria Constabulary had amalgamated with a lot of other forces, nobody had ever left to go to Bermuda as it involved actually resigning to go, I think that I actually opened the floodgates, because after me went a lot of others including a couple to the Cayman Islands but I think that was some kind of contract. It wasn't long before I discovered that the Deputy Commissioner came from a small village on the outskirts of Penrith and that his mother still lived there. It wasn't long too before I discovered that he visited her regularly and had a coloured girl for a wife. This information was to become invaluable to me as in the middle of the miners strike I was actually given a weekend off. One of my so called mates showed me an article in the Daily Star which said that over 1000 policemen had applied. I thought that it was never going to be for me.

Just as I was standing in the traffic office thinking this, the phone rang. It was my dad, who never called me; he told me that my mam had been taken into hospital with appendicitis. To say I was worried is the understatement of the century. She was in Carlisle Infirmary and I was in Barrow, my Bermuda interview was in 3 days and she was some 100 miles away, still in the same county. After visiting her, she told me to go for the interview and give it my best shot.

I arrived at the train station at 05.55am to catch the first London train. Having bought every newspaper at the kiosk it was off to the smoke. On the way I read until dizzy, completely ignoring all other people on the train. My confidence was soaring as I approached Euston station because I knew in my mind that I had prepared for this interview very well. Upon arrival I jumped a black cab to Saville Row and the Bermuda office of Tourism, on the way having a conflab with the cabbie, who wished me all the best and off I went with a spring in my step up the stairs, to be met at the top by a pleasant young lady who offered me a seat. There were a few guys sitting in a row, all shuffling along in the row like lambs to the slaughter as they were called in. It was about this time that the nerves hit me and butterflies bit my stomach. My confidence shattered, I was ready to run, when my name was called. Oh! God please help me! What had I done! Standing up, taking a deep breath, in I went - another lamb to the slaughter. The interview, as I'd hoped, was being conducted by the Deputy Commissioner from just outside Penrith and a Superintendent whom I knew nothing about.

The Deputy Commissioner conducted much of the interview and he seemed quite impressed that I had the initiative to catch the train that morning from the furthest distance and not incur too much expense by staying over the night before in a hotel. If I remember correctly the train fare was �18 but he gave me �20. It was more like a conversation than an interview. We had mutual acquaintances around the Penrith area as I had been stationed there on Task Force for a while. Then came the biggie, he asked me what I thought of coloured people. Looking suitably confused, I said that with working in the Cumbria Constabulary I rarely if ever came across them and if I did they would be treated as any other person with no bias whatsoever. His response was totally unexpected; he seemed not to like them at all by saying about as much. Then he started saying things like, "When you get to Bermuda the conditions will not be what you are used to" - and similar things.

I knew before I left the office that I had the job, but never said anything, as I was waiting for the official letter before the jumping about began. By the end of the week it arrived and even then the doubts crept in about whether I should go or not. In the end after a long sit down the seashore with my dogs I made up my mind - I was going to Bermuda.