Bermuda Militia Artillery The Bermuda Militia Artillery was a unit of part - time soldiers organised in 1895 as a reserve for the Royal Garrison Artillery detachment of the Regular Army garrison in Bermuda . The unit was embodied during both world wars , fulfilling its role within the garrison , and also sending contingents overseas to more active theatres of the wars . History . Bermuda had maintained its own militias ( in which all able - bodied , adult males , free or enslaved , were required to serve ) since colonisation officially began in 1612 . With the build up of the Royal Naval Dockyard and the attendant Regular Army garrison in the years following the American War of Independence , however , the Government of Bermuda quickly lost interest in funding a militia that seemed superfluous . Following the American War of 1812 , it ceased to renew the Militia Act , and the military reserve was allowed to lapse . For the next eight decades , the Secretary of State for War , and the Governor and Commander - in - Chief of Bermuda implored the local government in vain to raise a military reserve force as vast funds were channelled into building up the colony ' s defences . The colonial government , however , feared being saddled with the entire cost of maintaining the garrison , and was also concerned of the social discord that would result from raising either racially integrated or segregated units . Major General Sir William Reid , Governor and Commander - in - Chief of Bermuda from 1839 to 1846 , was forced to raise a regiment of voluntary reserve soldiers without the assistance of the local government , which recruited without racial discrimination , although relatively few white Bermudians enlisted . This was trained as light infantry , with an emphasis on amphibious operations . Although this unit was short - lived , other Bermudians appear to have continued to serve on a local - service , and presumably part - time , basis ( many others simply enlisted as regular soldiers ) with the regular detachments in Bermuda ( note First Sergeant Robert John Simmons of the 54th Regiment Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry , who died of wounds as a prisoner of war following the assault on Battery Wagner . Simmons was described by abolitionist , lecturer , novelist , playwright , historian and former slave William Wells Brown as " a young man of more than ordinary abilities who had learned the science of war in the British Army " . Simmons was 26 when he died , and too young to have served in Reid ' s regiment ) . In Britain , too , many citizens felt the government was neglecting the defence of that island by deploying much of the army around the World on garrison duty . The Militia and the Yeomanry , which could no longer rely on compulsory service , with the regular army units remaining in Britain , were not able to field forces thought adequate for the defence of the island by a large , modern continental army . Following the Crimean War , when reserve forces had to be despatched to the war zone , it was realised that the British Army ' s Imperial garrison obligations not only left Britain ' s defences vulnerable , but also did not allow sufficient uncommitted forces to compose an effective expeditionary force such as that required in the Crimea . As funds for the increase of the British Army were not forthcoming , and with the threat of invasion by France , the government tackled these issues by raising a Volunteer Force of part - time soldiers in 1859 . Composed primarily of locally organised Volunteer Rifle Corps , this force could be embodied in times of emergency , but its volunteers could not be compelled to serve abroad . Although the volunteer rifle corps would prove popular , the most immediate requirement was for artillerymen to man the coastal batteries that were the first line of defence . To make up the shortfall of reserve gunners , a number of existing Militia infantry regiments were retrained as the " Militia Artillery " that , along with the remainder of the Militia , the Yeomanry , and the Volunteer Force , would be merged into the Territorial Force ( subsequently the Territorial Army ) in 1908 , when terms - of - service , among other changes , were introduced . In addition to creating these part - time reserve forces , the British Government sought to redeploy regular army units from imperial garrisons back to Britain , where they could be use for defence or to compose expeditionary forces to be sent overseas to war zones , and replacing them with full - time or part - time units raised locally . This proved difficult to accomplish . In some parts of the Empire , removing British Army regiments would invite insurrection , insurgency , or invasion ( such as India , ever under threat from the Russian Empire , and which suffered the Great Mutiny of native regiments in 1857 . Bermuda , while less likely to suffer insurrection , was an inviting target to Britain ' s potential enemies , notably the United States of America , thanks to its strategic location and the important Imperial defence assets there , such as the Royal Naval Dockyard . Regular units could not be removed , therefore , ' til local reserves had been raised to replace them . As neither the London nor the Hamilton government was keen to pay for these units , decades more would pass before the regular army garrison in Bermuda began to be drawn down . Bermuda ' s new tourism industry , pioneered in the latter 19th Century by luminaries such as Princess Louise and Samuel Clemens , provided the Secretary of State with the leverage to compel the colonial government . He withheld his approval of American investment into the new Princess Hotel and the dredging of the shipping channel into St . George ' s Harbour as the first could provide a pretext for invasion ( by the USA , to protect the interests of its nationals ) , and the latter would make it easier for an enemy force to invade . The Secretary wrote that he could not approve either project while Bermuda contributed nothing to her own defence . accordingly , the Parliament of Bermuda passed three acts authorising the creation of voluntary , part - time artillery , rifle , and sappers - and - miners ( engineers ) units . A unit of engineers , the Bermuda Volunteer Engineers , would not be raised for another four decades . Foundation . The Bermuda Militia Artillery ( BMA ) , however , was raised in 1895 . Although it was titled as a militia , it was in practice a voluntary organisation , akin to those of the Volunteer Force . Historically , the Militia Artillery ( in Britain and in Bermuda ) had been seen as the most critical component . The Militia infantry and mounted units in Bermuda had embodied annually to train , and during times or war or emergency ( including quelling the Privateer Riots ) . A standing force of the Militia Artillery , however , had maintained the coastal artillery defences , guarding against attacks that might come at any time . Also , the skills of the artilleryman required more training to acquire and maintain , and annual training camps were not sufficient , which also lead to more emphasis being placed on the artillery . Advances in weaponry and tactics , by the mid - 19th Century , had actually increased the importance of artillery . Although not a continuation of the original militia , the titling of the new Bermudian artillery reserve as the " Bermuda Militia Artillery " , rather than as the " Bermuda Volunteer Artillery " , therefore followed the practice then current in Britain for similar units , which were a continuation of the old militia . The other volunteer unit raised at the same time as the BMA , the Bermuda Volunteer Rifle Corps BVRC ) , restricted its recruitment to whites , and the BMA was made up almost entirely of blacks , although its officers were white . Although BVRC recruits , originally , could quit their corps with fourteen days notice , as with UK volunteer rifle regiments , BMA recruits enlisted for six years . After 27 days of basic training , they were liable only to attend annual camp . While in camp , they were subject to the Army Act , and military law . The BMA wore the standard Royal Artillery uniform , and cap badge . Soldiers were originally recruited on a voluntary basis , though conscription was introduced during the Second World War , and re - introduced during the 1950s . Small contingents were sent to England in 1897 , to take part in Queen Victoria ' s Diamond Jubilee , and in 1902 , for the coronation of King Edward VII . At the first camp , in 1896 , the unit had a single company with a strength of 10 men and three officers . A second company was added as its strength grew to more than 200 over the next decade , but , as recruitment fell , its numbers dropped below 100 men again by 1914 . The unit was already embodied for annual camp when war was declared in 1914 . The Great War . During World War I , two contingents served as part of the larger Royal Garrison Artillery detachment to the Western Front . The first , 201 officers and men , under the command of Major Thomas Melville Dill , left for France on 31 May 1916 . A second , smaller , contingent left Bermuda on 6 May 1917 , and was merged with the first contingent in France . The contingent , titled the " Bermuda Contingent , Royal Garrison Artillery " , served primarily in ammunition supply , at dumps , and in delivering ammunition to batteries in the field . The Contingent served at the Somme from June to December 1916 . They were then moved away from the Front , serving on docks until April , 1917 , when they were attached to the Canadian Corps at Vimy Ridge , serving in the battle for Vimy Ridge . They were at Ypres from 24 June , until 22 October , where three men were killed , and several wounded . Two men received the Military Medal . In Bermuda , the BMA was demobilised on 31 December 1918 , and when the overseas contingent returned in July , 1919 , it was to no unit . Thirty men who chose to remain on temporarily re - enlisted in the RGA , and the rest were demobilised . Between The Wars . This was not the end for the BMA , however , as it was re - constituted for the annual camp of 1920 , when fifty new recruits joined six officers and 154 other ranks who had enlisted before the war . in 1921 , one company was tasked with providing mobile detachments , and the other for serving at fixed batteries . In 1928 , the BMA was reorganised along the lines of the Territorial Army . Training requirements became a weekly drill night , plus an annual two week camp . All of its enlisted men were discharged , and the unit slowly began to rebuild its strength through new recruitment . By 1930 it had been decided to remove the last of the regular RGA detachments , and to close all of the batteries except the Examination Battery at Saint David ' s Head , which the BMA assumed complete responsibility for operating . In 1932 , a new voluntary unit , the Bermuda Volunteer Engineers , was raised . This absorbed the BVRC signals element , and was also responsible for manning the search light detachments at Saint David ' s Head . That year , the War Office also ceased funding annual camps outside of the British Isles , citing a lack of funds , and the Bermuda government began funding training . In 1936 , on the occasion of the death of King George V , the BMA was involved in what could have been a severe international incident . The BMA had been instructed to fire a memorial salute from one of the two 4 . 7 " guns at Saint David ' s Battery . This salute was to consist of seventy blank rounds , one for each year of the King ' s life , fired at one minute intervals . Because of the difficulty of storing ammunition in Bermuda ' s humid climate , there proved to be only twenty - three rounds of blank ammunition in stock , and the remainder used were all headed ammunition . As the firing was to commence at 8am ( on the 21st January ) , and it was thought unlikely any vessels would be in the danger area , it was decided to proceed with the salute , ensuring the guns were elevated for maximum range ( 8 , 000 yards ) , out to sea . The firing began at 08 : 00 , and was over seventy minutes later . What the BMA gunners were unaware of , however , was that a Colombian Navy destroyer , the Antioquia , was at the receiving end of their barrage . The British - built destroyer was under the command of a retired Royal Naval officer ( part of the British Naval Mission to Colombia ) , and was arriving at Bermuda to undergo repairs at the HM Dockyard . Although the ship ' s crewmembers were alarmed to find themselves on the receiving end of an artillery barrage , the ship fortunately was not hit . The Second World War . In 1939 , a new battery of two 6 " guns was constructed at Warwick Camp . Despite this , the manpower requirements of the BMA simply did not make full use of the number of black males available for military service when the war began . Rather than integrate the BVRC or the BVE , it was decided to raise a second infantry unit , the Bermuda Militia Infantry , to recruit blacks , and this was grouped administratively with the BMA . Forces throughout the Empire were mobilised on 3 September 1939 , in anticipation of the declaration of war . Unlike in the Great War , when the two local units relied entirely on volunteers , conscription was introduced soon after the outbreak of hostilities , with blacks directed into the BMA , and whites into the BVRC . Volunteers and conscripts served full - time for the duration of the War . In June , 1940 , the BVRC sent a small contingent of volunteers to the Lincolnshire Regiment depot in England . A handful of volunteers from the BMA and the BVE travelled with them , separating in England to join the regular artillery or engineers . The BMA contribution to that contingent consisted of a single officer , Lieutenant Patrick Purcell , who , like most of the BMA ' s white officers , had begun his service in the ranks of the BVRC . Purcell would serve with the a coastal artillery detachment of the Royal Artillery in Sierra Leone , due to his similar experience with the BMA . He eventually transferred to the Lincolnshire Regiment , serving in North West Europe , and , having reached the rank of Major , being appointed Press Officer of the British Area of Occupation in Germany , following victory in Europe . The 1940 contingent was to be the last from Bermuda for nearly four years . Some members of the Bermuda Militia were selected for pilot training at the Bermuda Flying School , and sent on to the Royal Air Force . After the school closed in 1942 ( due to a surplus of trained pilots ) , the organisation overseeing it was converted into a recruiting and selection arm of the Royal Canadian Air Force , sending 60 volunteers , primarily from the various local military units , to that service for aircrew training before the end of the War . Despite that steady outward trickle , however , fears of weakening the garrison meant that a moratorium on further drafts from the island was in force until 1943 . By then , the likelihood of a German attack , or sabotage , had greatly diminished , and American forces , including artillery detachments , had been built - up on the island . This meant that local forces could be spared for service overseas , and both the BVRC and the Bermuda Militia detached companies to send across the Atlantic . The Bermuda Militia force , composed of members of the BMA and the BMI , trained with the BVRC contingent as an infantry force at Prospect Camp . The BVRC contingent was sent to the Lincolns in 1944 . The Bermuda Militia contingent , however , proceeded to North Carolina , where it formed the training cadre of a new regiment , the Caribbean Regiment , being formed on a US Army base in North Carolina . Contingents , mostly of new recruits , were sent from various West Indian territories . In North Carolina , they were assessed for fitness , then trained as infantry . The unit was then posted to Italy in 1944 . After serving briefly in the field , the Regiment escorted a shipment of Axis prisoners to Egypt , then remained there as prisoner - of - war ( POW ) camp guards until the end of hostilities . The Caribbean Regiment was disbanded after the war , and the Bermuda Militia contingent members returned to their original units in Bermuda . The BMI , along with the BVE , was disbanded in 1946 . The BMA and the BVRC were both reduced to a skeleton command structure before recruitment for both units began again in 1951 . The two were then grouped together , by the Defence ( Local Forces ) Act , 1949 , under the command of Headquarters , Local Forces . Post war . The military garrison existed primarily to defend the Royal Naval Dockyard , Bermuda located on Ireland Island . It was announced in 1950 that the dockyard would be closed , and the military garrison was withdrawn along with it . The last Imperial Defence Plan was produced in 1953 , and this was the last year in which the BMA and the BVRC were tasked under it . The Regular Army was withdrawn , ostensibly , on 25 April 1953 , but detachments would be posted on the island until 1957 when a company of the Duke Of Cornwall ' s Light Infantry ( DCLI ) was withdrawn . The local territorials might have been disbanded as their role had disappeared , but the Bermuda Government chose to maintain both remaining units , entirely at its own cost . The last coastal artillery pieces were removed from use in 1953 , however , and , rather than integrate the BVRC , it was decided to convert the BMA to the infantry role . The unit continued to wear the Royal Artillery uniform and cap badge , but were re - organised , equipped and trained . This also required changes to the rank and command structure as an infantry unit requires more junior NCOs than a comparably - sized artillery unit . Conscription was reintroduced , to the Bermuda Rifles in 1957 , and to the BMA in 1960 , although both units remained part - time . The permanent staff members of the BMA were now provided by Regular Army infantry units , instead of artillery units . In 1965 , with racial segregation rapidly becoming politically inexpedient , it was decided to end the unnecessary duplication of effort and the BMA was amalgamated with the Bermuda Rifles ( as the BVRC had been renamed ) on 1 September , to create the Bermuda Regiment .