An old friend of Bermuda returned this week: Reg Cooley. The cricketer, sports reporter and military man revisited old haunts during a trip back to the Island.

Lieutenant Colonel Cooley, 95, made his mark on the Island back in the 1950s as secretary of the Bermuda Cricket Board of Control and as assistant editor of the Bermuda Cricket Annual.

He was also a sports correspondent for this newspaper, along with The Mid-Ocean News — and was even offered the job of assistant sports editor, which he had to turn down for his career in the Royal Army Service Corps.

“I was back home freezing in front of the fire and I was sorely tempted,” Col Cooley recalled. “But I decided to stay in the army.”

A plaque on the wall of a Bermuda Government office at No 7 Dock off Front Street, unveiled by Col Cooley in 1994, commemorates its past as the Royal Army Service Corps (RASC) Wharf on East Broadway.

Among other things, Col Cooley was in charge of the tender that hauled out targets from the wharf to give the guns on shore some firing practice.

Col Cooley’s life was dedicated to the service: he became a boy soldier, signing up at age 14 in 1936 and stayed until 1975.

“I had a very dull war,” he recalled, but the RASC served a valuable role: you cannot fight a war without someone to take care of the gear.

Col Cooley’s colourful life began with his birth in Dublin, when an Irish Republican Army gunman was said to have taken a shot at the doctor who had delivered him, as he was setting off from the home of a British Army officer.

His duties eventually brought him to Bermuda where, from 1949 to 1953, he “packed a lot into the short time he was here”, according to local friend Ian Hind.

Col Cooley’s familiarity with Bermuda’s community included a good friendship with cricketing legend Alma “Champ” Hunt, whom he recalls as “a lovely man”.

He made fast friends with fellow sports fans Lawrence Doughty and Tommy Aitchison, as well as veteran Royal Gazette sports editor Bernard Brown. As a Freemason, he attended the Bermuda Garrison Lodge.

In an intriguing turn, Col Cooley’s late wife Peg may have counted Sir George Somers among her ancestors.

Now long retired in York, Col Cooley was happy to throw himself back into Island life. He returned home last night.

“Having no intention of leaving anything behind, Reg is having all the fun he can — including travelling out here first class,” Mr Hind said.