An online petition to keep the Queen's Birthday as a public holiday in Bermuda has attracted more than 3,150 signatures in just ten days.

"Retention of the Queen's Birthday holiday in Bermuda" has sparked attention from Bermuda and overseas since it was launched on April 11.

Spearheaded by Cameron Hollis, it was a response to Government's announcement that a National Heroes Day will be marked with a public holiday each October. The first person to be honoured will be the late politician and lawyer Dame Lois Browne Evans.

The new event means that the Queen's birthday will be marked with a public holiday for the last time this June 16 — although the popular parade will continue.

On the international website Go Petition, Mr. Hollis wrote: "Clearly the removal of our sovereign's birthday as a public holiday is inexcusable. No discredit to Dame Lois; she was an integral part of securing equality for all parts of our population, facing adversity along most of the way. There are ways of honouring her that do not involve a blatant insult to Her Majesty."

In addition, a group protesting the move on the Facebook social networking site has more than 1,000 members.

The controversial plans have even made news in the UK. The headline of the Mandrake society gossip column in the Daily Telegraph newspaper proclaimed: "Her Majesty's distant subjects are appalled."

The article said: "There are few British Overseas Territories where the Queen is more revered than Bermuda. So Mandrake fancies Sir Richard Gozney, the governor, should have reckoned with opposition when he approved a decision by the Island's government to scrap the Queen's birthday as a public holiday.

"A petition against it attracted more than 1,900 signatures in just four days. The holiday will disappear from the Island's calendar from 2009, although the Queen's Birthday Parade, as well as a party hosted by the governor and his wife at Government House, will remain."

Asked if the public outcry has sparked a re-think of plans to amend the Public Holidays Act when Parliament reconvenes next month, Minister for Culture and Rehabilitation Dale Butler replied: "No comment".

Mr. Butler, who was in talks with the Governor when this newspaper e-mailed, said the topic of the holiday was not under discussion during what he described as "a private national meeting".