Londoner Michael Shanahan first came to Bermuda in 1968 with the 1st Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers, a spearhead battalion known for their ability to face down rioters.

What followed was not violence, but one of the most idyllic periods of Mr Shanahan’s career.

Last month, he visited the island again for the first time in 57 years.

“I was sent all over the world, but Bermuda really was my best posting,” he told The Royal Gazette. “I came back for nostalgia’s sake.”

Trouble in Bermuda started on April 25, 1968, almost three weeks after the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr was assassinated in the United States.

Violence erupted at a fair organised to raise money for children with physical challenges. The trigger was allegedly the police’s rough handling of Black youth at the event.

The Secretary of State for Commonwealth Affairs, George Thomson, told the British House of Commons:

“ … on the night of April 25 there were disturbances in the Colony of Bermuda. The disturbances continued on the night of the 26th, in the course of which several fires were started. Fourteen persons were injured, including five police officers, but, I am glad to say, there was no loss of life. There has been much damage to property.”

On April 27, Mr Shanahan was at a ladies’ night in the Inniskilling officers’ mess when he and his fellow soldiers got word that they were needed at the airport.

“We all thought it was a training exercise,” Mr Shanahan remembered. “We were not told where we were going.”

However, when they arrived at the hangar, the guard would not open the gate for them.

“He said there was no training exercise; we were too early,” Mr Shanahan said.

The company commander ordered the guard to get on the phone right away. He soon came running back and allowed them to pass through and board two Royal Air Force VC10 aircraft.

The battalion still had no idea where they were going so the issuance of ammunition and mosquito netting seemed mysterious.

It was not until they were in flight that they were told they were headed for Bermuda.

They were used to tense, violent situations.

Mr Shanahan had joined the Fusiliers at 18, and had already been stationed in Cyprus for a year, and in Cold War Berlin, Germany, for two years, when the Bermuda riot happened.

Riots did not scare him or his mates.

“You are with your mates and you are geared up,” he said. “At that age, we were ready to take on the world. It was not an arrogance on our part, so much as good training.”

When they landed in Bermuda, they were surprised to find the island relatively quiet.

There was not much riot quelling needed.

“There were one or two minor confrontations but they [the rioters] could see we meant business,” Mr Shanahan said.

Because there was an election coming up on the island, it was decided to keep the Fusiliers here for another six weeks.

Stationed at Warwick Camp, Mr Shanahan and his fellow soldiers, “the boys”, would often wander down to the front gate to volunteer for guard duty.

“That never would have happened back home,” he remembered.

Their motivations were not entirely selfless.

People would drive by in their cars, stop and put beers and chips into the soldiers’ pockets.

“We did a lot of socialising with Black and White Bermudians,” Mr Shanahan said.

Daily Mirror journalist Marjorie Proops — stranded here during the emergency — reported that the security of Bermuda was in the hands of these soldiers.

“They are so young,” she wrote.

Mr Shanahan spent his spare time playing the bagpipes with the Bermuda Pipe Band.

“Both my mother and father’s families were pipers,” he said. “I am of Irish descent on my father’s side and Scottish on my mother’s side. I started learning at age 14 when I joined the Army. I was a boy soldier.”

His and his battalion also helped to restore the military cemetery in Sandys. There is a plaque on the wall there commemorating their work.

While in Bermuda this time, he had the chance to visit the cemetery, and have his photograph taken with the plaque.

He also met up with the Bermuda Islands Pipe Band and some old friends he had met in subsequent years, playing the bagpipes at town crier competitions around the world.

Soon after leaving Bermuda, the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers merged with two other regiments to become the Royal Irish Regiment.

Mr Shanahan was sent to Gibraltar and then to Libya, which was used as a training ground for his battalion.

“We were stationed in a resident company garrison,” he said. “One day we were out at the coast having a few days off. We were exploring the beaches and Roman cities. Then one of the lads came running up the road and said we better get back in the Land Rover quick. There had been a revolution.”

They made it safely back to camp but were effectively held hostage there for several months.

“We were living on army rations,” he said. “The mail was coming through, so there must have been diplomatic channels. The biggest problem was water. We had just enough water to drink, but not enough for the toilets or to wash.”

He was stationed in Northern Ireland at the height of The Troubles when a bomb went off near him, permanently deafening him in one ear and almost blinding him.

He retired soon afterwards.

“I became a special constable and played with the West Midland Police Pipe Band,” he said.

He joined the ambulance service, where he was a paramedic tutor and trainer.

“I was made a member of the Order of St John by the Queen,” he said. “My late wife, Beryl, was a captain and awarded a military MBE [Member of the Order of the British Empire] also by the Queen. It all sounds posh but we were not.”

He now lives in Chelsea, London, where he volunteers at the Royal Hospital Chelsea, home of the Chelsea Pensioners, a residence for distinguished veterans of the British Army.

Last week, the Inniskilling Officers Club had their last meeting in London. A mini pipe band from the Royal Irish Regiment played.

“As the last Inniskilling piper, I played Fare Thee Well Inniskilling at the very end,” Mr Shanahan said. “Time marches on.”