IT WAS an honour last week, as West Dorset’s serving MP, to join in the commemorations of one of my predecessors, George Somers, in the annual Somers Day celebrations at Lyme Regis.
He was Mayor of Lyme Regis in Elizabethan times, and then MP, and then naval hero who founded the island community known today as Bermuda. Exotic foods and knowledge of the world are two things we take for granted today, but Somers and his crew endured considerable disease, starvation, and mutiny in the pursuit of discovery and knowledge.
I was joined by the Mayor of St George’s, one of the earliest settlements founded in Bermuda by Somers. And for many years now, the Somers Day parade has celebrated the continued strength of our strong relationship with the Island of Bermuda and one where elected representatives are always keen to visit us on this day.