The feature by Dr Edward Harris in The Royal Gazette Weekender edition of last Saturday about the sinking of the Bermuda-based Royal Navy cruiser Aboukir at the start of the First World War, and articles relating to the Grand Slam of Golf at Port Royal Golf Course and celebration by the Somerset Methodist Church of its 150th Anniversary forcibly awakened thoughts I have long held about just how intriguing Bermuda’s history is.We have what I call “double dip” history.Double dip is a term usually associated with something pleasant, like ice cream for those able to metabolise it.We have to face the fact that we have had two Bermuda’s, one predominantly black and the other dominated by a powerful, often misguided white minority. The rendering of those two Bermuda’s will be pertinent until we become a sovereign, independent nation and the race of our people will matter not. Ethnicity will and should be of no consequence as we would as we should celebrate each other just as Bermudians.Now back to the article by Dr. Harris headlined ‘Second Destruction of the HMS Aboukir.’ The warship was on patrol off the Hook of Holland with two other cruisers, HMS Crecy and HMS Hogue. Early in the morning of Tuesday 22 September, 1914 a German submarine torpedoed Aboukir, It sank within 20 minutes with the loss of 527 men.Among those taken to a watery grave was a Bermudian, 22-year-old William Edmund Smith, the son of William Felix Smith and his wife Emma Jane, nee Douglas. Their homestead on Herman’s Hill, Somerset overlooks the Great Sound on one side and Sound View Road on the other. It is now the residence of Mrs. Margaret Smith Heyliger, Emma’s granddaughter.“When Aboukir sank so swiftly, it was first thought she had struck a mine. The other two cruisers in the squadron sped to the scene intending to rescue survivors, but only to suffer the same fate from that Nazi U-boat, with the loss of 1,450 officers and men in a 90-minute attack.“The wreckage of these three cruisers off the Netherlands coast, considered sacred ocean graves, has become a site for plunder for scrap metal by Dutch salvage companies. They have worked up the ire of the British Ministry of Defence in London, and a number of naval associations seeking to stop the desecration of these war sites deemed to be as sacred as those on land. Bermuda Government and others in Bermuda should protest to the proper authorities abroad over the despoliation of this, the final resting place of an iconic Bermudian.”Now for the historical double-dip regarding the Aboukir; the loss of William Edmund Smith and the rest of the feature by Dr. Harris. The first thing I did was to reach for the manuscript I have written for my soon to be published book titled Blacks In Defence of their Homeland. The introductory lines read thus:“Black Bermudians have more than pulled their weight in the defence of their country. Their patriotism has been exemplary, in fact extraordinary considering their unflinching service during the dark days of slavery despite laws on the statute books making it an offense punishable by death for Negroes to be caught with firearms. They played their part down through the years of legalised racial segregation and blatant discrimination leading up to and following the First and Second World Wars.“Their centuries-old record becomes all the more glorious and worthy of documentation considering the lengths their imperial overlords and deceitful colonial cohorts went to beguile the majority segment of Bermuda’s population and assign to them the indignities reserved for second and third class citizens as blacks were deemed to be throughout the rest of the old British empire and its ally, the United States of America.However, it is a significant fact that the very first Bermudian to be killed in action during the First World War was a black Bermudian, William Edmund Smith of Sandys.He enlisted in the Royal Navy while employed in the Bermuda Dockyard where the Aboukir was stationed; and paid the supreme sacrifice for freedom just 42 days after the outbreak of the war.His name is on a War Memorial at a churchyard in Kent; St. James Parish Church, Somerset and in the Somerset Methodist Church on Long Bay Lane, along with the names of other black Bermudians who were killed during the First World War.Aside from the Historical Background in my yet to be published book, other chapters deal with Up From Slavery when white fears about arming black soldiers began diminishing, leading to the formation of the white officered, black BMAs in 1892; and subsequently, the all-white BVRCs.Blacks were fanatically proud of their BMA unit. They reveled in the adulation they received from family in the community-at-large during their many public appearances over the early years. Some of this adulation is captured by Oda Mallory, highlighting the return from War of the BMAs in her 150th anniversary book of the Somerset Methodist Church.When the First World War broke out the BMAs were a highly trained unit. The BMA sent 240 of its men to the battlefronts in that war alone, which was more than the combined number from the BVRC during the whole of the two world wars. During the 52 years of its existence 232 men of the BVRCs saw active service in the Two World Wars of 1914-18 and 1939-45. Sixty of those men gave their lives.The foregoing factual data is not highlighted in the historical double dipping accounts in mainstream media.Also there are chapters in my book giving a summary of the battlefield service of the two units in the First World War and their return home from the trenches. Also Bermuda’s role against Caribbean struggles; outbreak of Second World War, and how Hitler threatened to destroy Bermuda.Also there’s an account of how the proud nephew of William Edmund Smith was one of the first members of the Bermuda Militia who volunteered for service overseas with the Bermuda Contingent of the Caribbean Regiment. His name was William Edwin Smith.While it was only 22 days after the start of the First World War, when William Edmund Smith and the 1,400 other officers and men lost their lives.As Dr Harris reported last week, when the war ended four years later on November 11, 1918 a total of 35 million people had either been killed or wounded, including 6 million allied troops of which 80 were Bermudians who had volunteered for service in the BVRC, the Bermuda Militia Artillery and other units.