Retired Superintendent George Barnsley

This article results from an email I received in March 2025, from Mr. George Barnsley, who is Chair of the Lanarkshire Police Historical Society.

George’s email came “completely out of the blue” and he was writing to advise that he was in the process of researching the history of Inspector Isabella Lee.  He had discovered  information on our ExPo website about Inspector Lee having served here as our first woman police officer. George explained that prior to coming to Bermuda, Isabella Lee was the first female police officer of Hamilton Burgh Police in Lanarkshire, Scotland,  and he was looking for any further information about Ms. Lee’s service in the Bermuda Police to facilitate research, along with any suitable photos, for an article he was writing about Ms. Lee. 

George clearly has a keen interest in Police history as a retired Superintendent with 32 years service with Strathclyde Police in Scotland, where the majority of his service was in CID, Major Crime, and latterly training at the Scottish National Police College at Tulliallan Castle. Following his retirement from the Police, George established his own business delivering investigation training to local authority investigators and Government Agency investigators. He also delivered police training in the United Arab Emirates and Qatar. .

Earlier this year George was honoured to be appointed a Deputy Lieutenant for the County of Lanarkshire. In this role he supports the Lord Lieutenant of the County who is the King's representative in Lanarkshire.

George has written a book 'The Lanarkshire Police Chronicles', covering the history of policing in Lanarkshire.

Inspector Isabella “Isobel” Lee

George's interest in researching Inspector Lee  could not have come at a better time because I had been intending for several years to write an article about our first woman police officer,  and I'm delighted that following our correspondence with each other, and armed with George’s own extensive research plus the information I was able to forward to him, he has written a superb article about the life of Inspector Lee which we have now published in our “Hall of Fame”. CLICK HERE to view the article.  

 Sergeant Walter “Walt” Sneddon

George had also mentioned that he was researching another former Bermuda Police officer, Walter “Walt” Sneddon, who had served in the Aidrie Burgh Police in Lanarkshire  prior to coming to Bermuda. I was able to provide him with information and photos of Walt who served here for 12 years, from August 1953 until November 1965. Walt had been promoted to Sergeant in 1960. He and his wife Dorothy had two children both born here in Bermuda.  Walt and Dorothy decided to emigrate to the U.S. in 1965 and they settled in Arizona. George completed his research and has written an excellent article about Walt Sneddon which we are delighted to publish here on our website. CLICK HERE to view it. 

 Inspector John Brown

George  briefly mentioned another police officer, John Brown,  who had joined the Aidrie Burgh Police way back in 1924,  and later joined the Bermuda Police where he became an Inspector, although he didn’t have any further information about him.  A quick check of our records through “Coops” List shows that John Mitchell Brown joined the Bermuda Police on 1^st November 1932, and retired as an Inspector  on 4^th June 1957.

However, on closely checking our ExPo website I just came across a “Wanted” Notice for  Information on Inspector John M. Brown, resulting from a request by  George and Anita Bullas from Canada, who returned to the Island after many years and were enquiring about George’s half cousin, John Mitchell Brown, who had served here in the Bermuda Police and rose to the rank of Inspector before leaving the Force to work for the Bank of Bermuda. They were aware that John and his wife Helen lived in Paget and Helen had worked in a jewellery store in Hamilton, but they left Bermuda in the mid-1960’s and settled back in Scotland.  They were buried in Ellon Cemetery in Aberdeenshre.  CLICK HERE to view the "Wanted" notice  on our website.

 

While checking through our files I discovered  one other former Bermuda police officer who came here after serving in the Lanarkshire Police for 3 years from 1963-1966, and that was David “Bones” Fraser who served in the BPS from November 1966, mainly in Central Division (Hamilton) until his tragic death in June 1969. Sadly,  David took his own life. 

George also expressed interest in any other Bermuda Police Officers who originated from Scotland (especially Lanarkshire) who have served with the Bermuda Police?   If you have any such information you can contact us at info@expobermuda.com