Former Bermuda Regiment leader Col. Patrick Outerbridge said he was "very disappointed" last night not to have received an invitation to the swearing-in ceremony of new Commanding Officer Edward Lamb.

It is traditional for all former commanding officers to be invited, but Col. Outerbridge said he was not contacted about the ceremony on Saturday until less than two hours before it was ready to begin.

Regiment Adjutant Capt. William White said yesterday that a hand delivered invitation was sent to Col Outerbridge but the former commanding officer insists nothing was received, and the first communication he received was one-and-a-half hours before the ceremony when a Regiment officer called his wife to apologise that he had been left off the list.

Col. Outerbridge, who commanded the Regiment between 1997 and 2000, told The Royal Gazette yesterday that he could not understand why the Regiment was claiming to have given him a hand delivered invitation.

If the invitation had been hand delivered, he would have been on the guest list, yet the Regiment officer who called on Saturday had apologised to his wife that he was not on the list.

Col. Outerbridge said yesterday: "It is very disappointing because I would have liked to have been involved, especially as all the other commanding officers were invited.

"It's not like they were looking for a corporal who left ten years ago and they couldn't find his address because I only stepped down a year and half ago.

"Quite a few people have said to me they were surprised I wasn't there and when I told them I wasn't invited, they were taken aback. They found it hard to believe.

"About an hour and a half before the ceremony, my wife got a call saying 'We've forgotten Col. Outerbridge and he needs to be here within the next hour for the ceremony', and she said 'No, I don't think he'll be doing that'.

"I am taken aback that they can come out and say it was delivered by hand. I didn't get it and there was nothing hand delivered.

"The mail could have been lost, I don't know, but we didn't get anything hand delivered. With something like this, you should follow it up these invitations with at least a telephone call. That's how it used to happen, especially with senior people.

"The person who called up was apologetic saying Col. Outerbridge had been left off the guest list. If it had been hand delivered I would have been on the guest list. I hope I'm included in three years time, I'd love to be there."

Capt. White said yesterday: "He was invited. There was an invite that was hand delivered to his house, but he was unable to come because he had a prior engagement."

Former Regiment Col Gavin Shorto said: "It has been standard operating procedure since the 1960's ( to invite all former CO's) and I've never known any exception to that rule.

"I don't know what to think of it. I can only assume it was some kind of mistake."

Col Lamb said last night: "I'm sure Col. Outerbridge would have been invited. He's a former commanding officer. But I don't know about it because I've been away for the last two months."