We’ve just received an email from our old friend and former colleague Ian Graham who has sent us a copy of an enticing police recruitment campaign from Australia running in the Mail on Sunday newspaper “showcasing the country’s sunny climate and sandy beaches.” In a lighthearted video, South Australia’s police commissioner, Grant Stevens, poses in shorts while standing in the sea to sell the fringe benefits of the job.
The Mail on Sunday 6th April 2025
The South Australia force is looking to recruit officers from the UK who have at least three years experience. Successful applicants start on 38,845 pounds during probation.
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Seeing this ad clearly reminded Ian of the time when he was serving as a young constable in Scotland and applied to join another Police Force that could also claim to have “a sunny climate and sandy beaches”! However, I don't recall our Commissioner of Police ever wading into the sea on a sandy beach in uniform - and wearing Bermuda shorts!
Ian has written:- "Attaching a photo of an article in last Sunday’s UK Mail on Sunday newspaper showing an article about the South Australia Police intending to recruit British Police Officers to join their Force. It mentions recruiting Scottish Officers but the recruitment campaign will cover the whole of the UK. If you know any young Constable presently working in a UK Police Force they might be interested?!
"52 years ago I was a Constable in Scotland just turned four years service when I saw an advert in a UK newspaper advertising recruitment into the Bermuda Police and separately also for the Hong Kong Police. Hong Kong was still British at that time. I made application to both Police Forces and Bermuda responded first and before I knew it I was in London accompanied by Donald Grant and had an interview and medical, and awaited the result. I expected a letter either getting the offer of a post in Bermuda or a rejection of my application however when the letter arrived it did not make me an offer of a post but says I had a post with a starting date of 3rd October 1973 and included my air ticket!
I quickly made up my mind and gave my resignation to what was at that time Renfrew & Bute Constabulary - and Bermuda here I came!
I was one of 14 officers recruited at that time 7 officers arrived in Bermuda on 2nd October 1973 and the other 7 including me, Donald Grant, Paul Davis, Bob Kinnon, Damian Willocks, Frank Wood and Chris Bowerman arrived on 3rd October.
Seeing the newspaper article about South Australia Police recruiting in the UK reminded me of how I changed posts from Glasgow to Bermuda and how it changed my life. The Hamilton I knew at that time is a Scottish town about 5 miles up the road from where I lived but I soon got to know much better another Hamilton walking the beat with Norman Ingerman in Bermuda. As my wife Maggie says if I hadn’t gone to Bermuda I would not have met her (Maggie was a nurse in the Emergency Dept of KEMH and we married 36 years ago)
I wonder if any young Constables in the UK will respond to the South Australia Police recruitment drive in the UK and will relocate to the other side of the world and change their lives!?"
Quo Fata Ferunt
Ian Graham 449