On the 10th March 1973, Captain Hugh Sayers, was shot dead in Bermuda alongside the Governor, Sir Richard Sharples KCMG OBE MC, to whom he was aide-de-camp (ADC).
Sir Richard had been commissioned into the Welsh Guards in 1936, he fought throughout World War 2, serving in all three Welsh Guards battalions and won a Military Cross at the defence of Boulogne whilst a Platoon Commander. In 1944 he was wounded with the 3rd Battalion in Italy. He retired from the army in the early 50s to take up a career in politics.
Captain Hugh Sayers was posted, mid tour from West Belfast in 1972 during a violent period of the "troubles" to take up the post. He was 26 and just 10 days short of his 27th birthday. Sir Richard was 56.
On 10th March 2023, 50 years to the day, a service of commemoration was held in the Guards Chapel to mark the anniversary of the assassinations. It was a beautiful and dignified service, attended by family and friends of the both the Sharples' and Sayers families in the presence of Her Royal Highness The Duchess of Gloucester (as Colonel in Chief of the Royal Bermuda Regiment) and the Governor of Bermuda, Her Excellency Ms Rena Lalgie. Also present were two former Governors; Sir John Vereker KCB KStJ, FRSA (Governor 2002 - 2007) and Mr George Fergusson (Governor 2012 - 2016).
Some three and a half thousand miles away in Bermuda on the same day, the Acting Governor Mr Tom Oppenheim MBE, alongside Bermudian former Aides-de-Camp, attended St. Peter’s Church graveyard to lay wreaths in remembrance at the graves of Sir Richard Sharples and Captain Hugh Sayers. Full details are given on the Bermuda Government website here.
Captain Paul DeZulueta wrote an excellent article for the 2018 Regimental Magazine, entitled "Death in Paradise" which covered that fatal day in 1973 and this can be read here.
A pictorial tribute, published by the Kiwanis International Club in Bermuda shortly after the assassinations in 1973 is here.
