In 1951, the Bermuda Government inherited hundreds of acres of land and history properties when, for the paltry sum of three-quarters of a million pounds sterling, it purchased those lands from the British Government, properties formally used as military sites. All the fortifications on those lands were of historic value, as were many of the buildings, but sixty years on, a number of the forts have yet to feel the soothing hand of the restorer and some monuments have been otherwise demolished. The preservation and use of such built heritage assets of this small place for tourism could coin far more money for everyone than any casinos ever will.Every time you lot go to the wonderful beaches of the South Shore, or visit most of our National Parks, you should thank whatever spirit you wish that the British military appropriated those lands by purchase, largely in the nineteenth century. Without those acquisitions, mostly from private landholders, we would have few National Parks and the beaches of Warwick and Southampton would likely be covered to the high water line with condos.Tourism began with the “Grand Tour” of historical monuments of Europe, North Africa and the near East. Tourism is the largest “international business” worldwide and much of it is based on the passion of people to travel to see what is unique about other places and countries. That connection between tourism and heritage will never change, except for those places that insist on destroying their legacies in the name of religion, ‘development’, or what have you. Pity the Buddhas, and Aleppo, and watch out for Timbuktu, all of which, like our St George’s, are World Heritage Sites.Not everything from the past can be kept, but each case should be considered on its merits. The saving of some of the Royal Navy’s dockyard here has proved that heritage is not only good but essential for a solid tourism industry.Of late, the “military wall art” of the South Yard has come into question, as some of it has recently been demolished. The artwork is comprised of ships’ ‘badges’ (to the Royal Navy) and ‘crests’ to the US and other naval forces. In the Royal Navy, the ship badge came into being officially after the First World War. It was a long awaited response to the disappearance of the former icon of the identity of a ship, in the days of ‘iron men’ and wooden sailing vessels, the figurehead, an elaborately carved statue on the prow of a ship. In 1919, by which time few iron or steel vessels carried figureheads, the badge was invented, which was a simplified coat-of-arms, surrounded by a rope of gold on the border of a circular, square or pentagonal emblem, depending on the type of ship. The badge, in large format, was often mounted in the bridge and smaller versions were given out as gifts, as a warship visited various ports of call.At the South Yard of the Bermuda Dockyard, constructed in the first decade of the 1900s, sailors sometimes painted their ship’s badge on the southern boundary wall nearest the wharf, or on one of the small buildings adjacent to the dock. As indicated in a picture recently sent from England by Jean Radford, taken in 1932 when her family lived in the Dockyard, there were no such paintable spaces in the South Yard at that date. The crests and badges therefore likely date to when the Dockyard was downsized in 1951 to the South Yard, after which time the concrete blocks walls were constructed on which they were painted.A handbook on Military Wall Art by English Heritage, notes that: ‘Whatever the circumstances of its location, the management needs of wall art are often very specific and will be influenced by various factors, including the nature of the site and the extent and condition of the decoration. Conservation in situ and permanent retention may not always be appropriate or even feasible, and there may be cases where careful recording is sufficient; in some instances, subsequent detachment or loss may have to be contemplated.’In this instance, careful professional recording by photography has been made of the badges in the South Yard by the National Museum, as the loss of the supporting structures has long been contemplated, or rather anticipated. In other words, that archaeological data has been translated into an archive for the future, as the best means of preserving it for the collective memory. It would be well nigh impossible to move the concrete block boundary wall, without its dismemberment that would largely destroy the paintings, as would also be the case of the little buildings that are made of limestone block. The crests have also been repainted and thus altered as design errors creep in, as the people involved had not the familiarity with the emblems that the ships’ crews would have brought originally to the task.This is not an apologia for those who intend to demolish such transient heritage, but to write that because of their now inappropriate location on immovable materials and their exposure to the deleterious Bermuda atmosphere, the ‘shelf life’ of the Dockyard Badges has unfortunately passed. That is not to underrate their cultural value, but to say that there are a number of far more important issues regarding conservation of built-heritage in Bermuda, in the Dockyard and elsewhere, to which attention should be focused.Edward Cecil Harris, MBE, JP, PHD, FSA is Executive Director of the National Museum at Dockyard. Comments may be made to director@bmm.bm or 704-5480.