The Bank of Bermuda and Trimingham Brothers Ltd. have long had a history of connections ? indeed the store was said to be the bank?s longest standing client, but it is doubtful that anyone would have foreseen this end to a story that ultimately goes back about 115 years.

On Tuesday, both parties announced that Trimingham?s would be closing its doors at the end of July after 146 years in business.

Waiting in the wings to scoop up the store?s valuable Front Street property, as well as an adjacent property rented from Butterfield, Conyers and Watlington, for an undisclosed price was the Bank of Bermuda.

No one knows how the decision taken by the present day Trimingham owners would strike the founding father of this longstanding merchant dynasty, James Harvey Trimingham who set up the shop as a dry goods store in 1842. But it does effectively spell the end of this long tie between the bank and the Island?s oldest department store.

The bank, which was taken over last year by multinational banking giant HSBC Plc after 114 years of going it alone, was in fact first managed by a Trimingham. More recently, Eldon Trimingham served as the bank?s chairman for 15 years while also head of Trimingham Brothers. He stepped down from the bank in 2001 after seeing the bank through a pitoval period of growth, global expansion and being given exemption from the 60/40 Bermuda/foreign ownership regulations that paved the way for its listing on US stock exchange Nasdaq and then its sale to HSBC in February, 2004.

In total, Mr. Trimingham was a bank board member for 32 years.

The company?s legal counsel Wendell Hollis explained on Tuesday that the ties between the bank and the Triminghams date back to the bank?s founding.

?The Triminghams were closely involved in the original set-up of the Bank of Bermuda. The first manager of the bank was a Trimingham, and it has been its oldest customer,? he said.

Mr. Hollis added that Trimingham Brothers Ltd. was likely the bank?s largest client until after the Second World War.

?The relationship between the bank and Trimingham is a long standing one and to some extent this transaction reflects that.?