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.
Where Does Your Story Begin? Explore Tracing Our Roots / Routes
Naval Dockyards Society Special Conference The 75th Anniversary Commemoration of the Closure of the Royal Naval Dockyard, Bermuda Saturday May…
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Read MoreMembership supports NMB education programmes and offers year-round benefits
Donations help us tell Bermuda’s story, preserve our past, and connect people with history
Join our team of volunteers. Digital and in-person volunteer opportunities are available
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.
9:00am | Registration, tea and coffee |
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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 |
Trained as a 17th-century historian, Neil Kennedy's research and publications have now moved into the emancipation era.
Read BioI 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 is an archivist on contract for the Naval Museum of Halifax, also known as Admiralty House.
Read BioArchivist 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.
Dr. Ross Nedervelt is an adjunct instructor in history at Florida International University (Miami, Florida).
Read BioDr. 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.
Dr. Samantha Middleton is an early career naval historian.
Read BioDr. 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 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
Read BioI 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.
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.
Read BioI 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.
Dr. Guy Collender is the Post Doctoral Senior Research Associate at the Centre for Port Cities and Maritime Cultures, University of Portsmouth.
Read BioDr. 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.
We look forward to meeting you at the Conference.
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.
As we commemorate the 75th anniversary of the closure of Royal Naval Dockyard at Bermuda, we invite you to share your stories and photographs.
Membership supports NMB education programmes and offers year-round benefits
Donations help us tell Bermuda’s story, preserve our past, and connect people with history
Learn more about NMB’s beautiful and unique spaces and venue hire options.