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The Royal Naval Dockyard, Bermuda was a symbol of British military power for more than 150 years. Today, it’s one of Bermuda’s most popular spots for visitors, home to the island’s biggest cruise ship pier and many restaurants, shops, and attractions. On May 31, 2025, the UK’s Naval Dockyards Society and the National Museum of Bermuda will be holding a Conference in Bermuda commemorating the 75th anniversary of the closure of the Royal Naval Dockyard.

Please note: Conference registration is now closed

 

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Seven speakers from the UK, US, and Canada will present in three sessions on the following topics:

  • Bermuda Naval Dockyard—Early Bermuda history & North Atlantic conflict
  • The North Atlantic—Second World War & Second World War Personal stories
  • Dockyard Closure & Bermuda Dockyard today—Bermuda’s economic loss and recovery

Conference Schedule

9:00am

Registration, tea and coffee

10:00am

Welcome Dr Elena Strong, Executive Director, National Museum of Bermuda and Co-President, Museums Association of the Caribbean & Dr Ann Coats Chair Naval Dockyards Society

Roger Bendall will introduce the slideshow of pictures and notes about Bermuda Dockyard workers and families

Morning

Bermuda Naval Dockyard—Early Bermuda History & North Atlantic Conflict

10:10AM – 10:50AM

Dr Neil Kennedy Memorial University, St John’s, NL Hucksters and Marketers: Black Bermudian Women’s Economic Strategies at Ireland Island.

10:50AM – 11:30AM

Lisa McNiven Naval Museum of Halifax ‘Atlantic Line: Halifax to Bermuda- connecting Halifax and Bermuda through burial records.’

11:30AM – 12:10PM

Dr Ross Nedervelt Florida International University ‘Challenging Identities: Bermudians, American Mariners, and the Royal Navy in the Atlantic Border-sea, 1783-1815.’

12:10PM – 12:15PM

Remembering Professor John Tunbridge

12:15 - 1:15pm

Buffet Lunch

Afternoon

The North Atlantic—Second World War & Second World War Personal Stories

1:15PM – 1:55PM 

Samantha Middleton MA, The strategic importance of Bermuda in the Battle of the Atlantic.’

1:55PM – 2:35PM 

Ian Grant MA, ‘Wartime Letters between Bermuda and London, October 1940–43.’

2:35 - 3:00pm

Tea Break

Afternoon

Dockyard Closure & Bermuda Dockyard Today—Bermuda’s Economic Loss and Recovery

3:00PM – 3:40PM

Prof. Yasmin Khan, University of Oxford ‘Ports, labourers, merchant mariners and the decolonisation of the British Empire.’

3:40PM – 4:20PM 

Dr Guy Collender University of Portsmouth Redefining Bermuda’s Royal Naval Dockyard since 1951: From the Gibraltar of the West to an extension of the Caribbean.’

4:20PM – 4:45PM

Questions to Speakers

4:45PM

Valediction Dr Ann Coats

5:15pm

Conference Reception

Delegates are invited to adjourn to the Frog and Onion Pub for light refreshments including one welcome beverage

Presenter
Profiles

Neil-min

Neil Kennedy, PhD

Trained as a 17th-century historian, Neil Kennedy's research and publications have now moved into the emancipation era.

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I am fortunate to have worked since the 1990s on the history of Bermuda, first as an archeologist on slave quarters at Hog Bay Park, and then at King’s Castle. Trained as a 17th century historian my research and publications now have moved into the emancipation era. I am writing a microhistory of an enslaved Bermudian mariner who freed himself in New York only to be re-enslaved in Louisiana, from where he sought freedom. I uncovered a Bermudian man’s slave narrative, parallel to Mary Prince’s, not previously identified, and have two articles underway. I have co-authored work on the myth of benign slavery in Bermuda. I have pieces forthcoming on the Colonial Office’s legal opinion on Bermuda’s Slavery Amelioration Act of 1827, and a new account of the arrival of the American slave ship Enterprise in Bermuda in 1835.

Lisa-min

Lisa McNiven

Lisa is an archivist on contract for the Naval Museum of Halifax, also known as Admiralty House.

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Archivist on contract for the Naval Museum of Halifax. Also known as Admiralty House.
Have been on work terms and contracts for the past ten years at the museum.
I have a Master of Library and Information Studies (MLIS) from Dalhousie University and a Bachelor of History with Honours from Saint Mary’s University in Halifax.
Duties at the museum include research, organization of photo collection, including biographies and documents.
The museum is open to the public and we assist in exhibits at the museum and on base and participate in outreach programs. One of the programs that I pursue and enjoy is conducting walking tours of our Naval Burying Ground.

Ross-min

Dr. Ross Nedervelt

Dr. Ross Nedervelt is an adjunct instructor in history at Florida International University (Miami, Florida).

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Dr. Ross Nedervelt is an adjunct instructor in history at Florida International University (Miami, Florida), where he received his Ph.D. in 2019, and a National Endowment for the Humanities fellow at the Massachusetts Historical Society. He specializes in border regions, identity, and security in the British Atlantic world during the long eighteenth century. His in-progress monograph, presently titled “Revolutionary Border-sea: Security, Empire, and Independence in the Western Atlantic, 1763-1825,” examines the American Revolution’s transformative impact on Bermuda and the Bahamas, and their strategic importance for both British imperial and American national security in the Age of Revolutions.

Samantha-min

Dr. Samantha Middleton

Dr. Samantha Middleton is an early career naval historian.

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Dr. Samantha Middleton is an early career naval historian. Her doctoral research focused upon the professionalisation of the Royal Navy between 1660-1688. This work was a multi-disciplinary thesis between naval history and accounting history and established that the concept of management control can be seen to have been implemented by James Duke of York, Samuel Pepys and William Coventry. Dr Middleton is currently in the final stages of review in co-authoring an article related to this research with Professor Lisa Jack and has presented her work at multiple international accounting and naval history conferences. Dr Middleton specialised in the Battle of the Atlantic for her MA dissertation.

Ian-min

Ian Grant, MA

Ian Grant, MA continues his work in the publishing world as a consultant and in the voluntary sector as a former Trustee of the Stationers’ Company Foundation

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I was born in January 1949 in Singapore, where my father was a member of the Victualling Department of the Admiralty. My early education was in Malta, at the Army School in the Tigne Barracks in Sliema. Back in the UK, I progressed to Eltham College in south-east London and boarded there when my father was posted to Bahrain. Following school, I was awarded BA and MA at Cambridge, during which time my father was posted to Melbourne, on a civil service exchange with an Australian counterpart.

My business career was in the British publishing industry, in information publishing for consumer, educational and academic markets. I was Publishing Director of Dorling Kindersley Ltd, which took me back around the world to Singapore and Australia, among many other countries. I retired from full-time executive employment as Managing Director of Encyclopaedia Britannica, with responsibility for Europe, Middle East and Africa.

I took a new direction by training as an actor, taking a Master’s degree at East 15 Drama School, and have since turned towards writing plays and musical theatre pieces. I continue my work in the publishing world as a consultant and in the voluntary sector as a former Trustee of the Stationers’ Company Foundation, which makes educational grants to young people from under-represented communities in the UK entering the content and communication industries.

Yasmin-min

Professor Yasmin Khan

Professor Yasmin Khan is a historian of the modern British empire, with a specialism in the history of twentieth-century South Asia and also in the Second World War.

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I am a historian of the modern British empire, with a specialism in the history of twentieth-century South Asia and also in the Second World War. I have written books about the Partition of India, refugees and decolonization and about India in the Second World War. My current book project is about British warfare and the role of non-European peoples. I teach at Oxford’s History Faculty and Department for Continuing Education, and I am a Fellow of Kellogg College, a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and an editor of History Workshop Journal.

Guy-min

Dr. Guy Collender

Dr. Guy Collender is the Post Doctoral Senior Research Associate at the Centre for Port Cities and Maritime Cultures, University of Portsmouth.

Read Bio

Dr. Guy Collender is the Post Doctoral Senior Research Associate at the Centre for Port Cities and Maritime Cultures, University of Portsmouth. He has published research aboutLondon’s Great Dock Strike of 1889 and the Australian Maritime Strike of 1890 in Coastal Studies and Society, and about the history of workplace accidents in UK docks for Hindsight Perspectives for a Safer World. He gained his PhD on the history of the Port of London (1900-1939) from Birkbeck, University of London, in 2022. He is writing a book for Palgrave Macmillan on working class cultures in the Port of London.

Additional Details

We look forward to meeting you at the Conference. 

Memberships

The conference and tours are open to all but if you wish to continue an association with either the NDS or NMB here are the details.

Virtual (Member) – $20, Virtual (Non-Member) – $30

In Person (Member) – $75.00, In Person (Non-Member) – $ 80.00

In Person (Verified Student) – $50

A walking tour of the National Museum of Bermuda is included as part of your registration. However, the walking tour of the UNESCO World Heritage Site, the Town of St. George’s, will incur an additional cost (to be confirmed).

Additional tours before and after the conference, including boat tours of the islands of the Great Sound and to Paget Island and Fort Cunningham, for an extra charge will be advised later.

Membership is open to individuals, students and institutions. Standard membership includes the delivery of two electronic Dockyards newsletters a year and a hardcopy and e-pub Transactions journal, past conferences are available on Amazon as either print on demand or Kindle editions. Transactions on Amazon.

Membership is open to individuals and corporations. Benefits include free unlimited Museum admission, Bi-annual MARItimes magazine and savings at Participating Dockyard Restaurants and Dolphin Quest. Membership details can be found here

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Dockyard Memories

As we commemorate the 75th anniversary of the closure of Royal Naval Dockyard at Bermuda, we invite you to share your stories and photographs.

Bermuda Ferry Service

The main ferry terminal is located at Albuoy’s Point in Hamilton.

Book Today

Bermuda Bus Service

Reference the bus schedule to find a pickup location near you.

Book Today

This conference will be at the National Museum of Bermuda, 1 The Keep Sandys Bermuda, MA01.

THERE IS NO PARKING.

Become a Member

Membership supports NMB education programmes and offers year-round benefits

Support NMB

Donations help us tell Bermuda’s story, preserve our past, and connect people with history

Explore Our Grounds

Learn more about NMB’s beautiful and unique spaces and venue hire options.