A local historian told of his excitement at uncovering a story Bermuda authorities may have tried to hide, when a 1920 mutiny by members of the black Bermuda Militia Artillery (BMA) ended in a soldier’s death.The St George’s uprising also saw an unknown British soldier wounded, and at least one Bermudian soldier charged in court.“Usually my research is fairly mundane, but this was an exciting find,” author Jonathan Evans said, of his chance discovery in an old Royal Gazette.During the struggle at the barracks, a BMA man named Hilton Simmons was shot, and later died. Mr Evans discovered the story by accident.“I write mostly on Bermuda’s art history,” he said. “My research involves going through the newspapers thoroughly. I just happened to stumble on a small, obscure report of a coroner’s jury, which is what they held if someone died under unusual circumstances.”The “fairly serious insurrection” seemed to have been hushed up, he said.“At the time, they probably didn’t want it to get out to the world that troops, especially black troops, had resisted authority.”Enquiries at the Bermuda Archives resulted in enough material for a paper, to be published next year in the Bermuda Journal of Archaeology and Maritime History.It began with The Royal Gazette of August 7, 1920, which contained a brief account of the coroner jury’s findings.On July 24 that year, an unnamed BMA man was arrested and confined for reasons unexplained which prompted a “spirit of unrest” among BMA soldiers.A number were arrested and taken to the guardroom, but one escaped and, according to the newspaper, “got several of his comrades to join him in an attempt to release the prisoners: to effect which they attacked the guard with rifles and fixed bayonets.“The guard resisted them, and they were repeatedly warned to go back or they would be fired upon.”After a British soldier was injured, the guard opened fire, killing Mr Simmons and wounding others.The report concluded: “It was a most unfortunate affair; so far as he knew, the Coroner said, there never had been such a riot in St. George’s in all its history.”The guard was cleared of charges.“It looks to be a forgotten episode,” said Mr Evans, who was researching for his series of books on Bermuda’s art history.“It makes me feel like a time traveller. When you’re immersed in the past, you never know what will come up.”The causes of the uprising are unclear, Mr Evans has written and the influence of alcohol cannot be ruled out.He speculated the mutiny would have been “highly embarrassing for a colony that prided itself on order, decorum, tradition, the rule of law, political stability, and its appeal to Americans as an upmarket holiday destination”.Ed Harris, director of the National Museum of Bermuda, said the publication should be on sale at the museum by May.