A Progressive Labour Party MP was honoured yesterday for 40 years of service with the Hamilton Rotary Club.

Neville Tyrrell received his Rotary Long Service Award, which he said he earned through a lasting drive to help those in need.

He said: “You live to give back, or at least you should — that’s the way I look at it.

“I’ve been thankful for whatever has been done for me, and I just like to share it with other people.”

Mr Tyrrell was one of six longstanding Rotarians who received the award, which honours those who worked with the Hamilton Rotary Club for 30 years or more.

The other five Rotarians could not attend because of illness or previous travel plans.

Mr Tyrrell said that he joined the Hamilton Rotary Club while working as a manager at Cable and Wireless Bermuda, now LinkBermuda.

He explained that managers were encouraged to join a community service club and that he chose the Rotary Club because he saw it as “the best way to give back”.

Mr Tyrrell said working with the Rotary Club reminded him of what his mother always told him: “To whom much is given, much is expected”.

He added that his time with the Rotary Club was his way of living up to this.

Mr Tyrrell said: “Everybody’s their brother’s keeper. I truly believe in that, so I treat people as I think they should be treated.”

He added: “One of the things Rotary did was try to eradicate polio and that’s when I really understood the extent of polio in the world and trying to help people.

“I’ve always been a helper, so this was all from an interest in humanitarianism.”

Mr Tyrrell admitted that he was “a little overwhelmed” when he first joined because of the many “kingmakers” — or wealthy and well-connected people — who were part of the club.

Despite this, he said that he learnt a lot of useful skills with the Rotary Club, such as public speaking, which he said had never been his strong suit.

He explained that much of his time involved balancing his own presentations with making sure guest speakers felt honoured, and keeping track of club business.

Mr Tyrell added: “My presentation skills were something that I really relied on a lot, but public speaking at that time was not one of my strong points.

“[The Rotary Club] gave me the confidence to do it well — I was president [of the club] at a very young age, at least I thought, and it just developed from there.”

Mr Tyrrell said that his growing strengths propelled him to serving in the Senate under Alex Scott in 2004 for two terms before becoming an MP.

He said that he did not think his public-speaking skills would be as strong as they were now, had it not been for his time in the Rotary Club.

A downside, Mr Tyrrell admitted, was that the Rotary Club was changing “drastically” in terms of numbers.

He said that, during his membership in the 1980s and 1990, there were more than 150 people attending meetings.

Now, he added, the Rotary Club only saw about ten members per meeting.

“We’re struggling to bring people into Rotary,” he said. “People don’t volunteer like they used to.”

He added: “It’s a sign of the times. In Bermuda there’s a real lack of volunteers.

“Young people today are focusing on their careers, so they don’t have the time to sit out for an hour and a half at lunch when they could be sitting at their desks doing something else.”

Despite this, Mr Tyrrell feels hopeful that the Rotary Club would always have a place in society, as there will always be a need for community service.

The other Rotarians to receive a Rotary Long Service Award were Nancy Gosling, George Cook, Mansfield Brock, Kirkham Kitson and Gerard Bean.

Patricia Pogson-Nesbitt was also inducted into the Rotary Club yesterday after several years of working alongside the community group.

Ms Pogson-Nesbitt runs Noire Youth Theatre Company, which was created in 2017 by CedarBridge Academy pupils at the time under her tutelage as a teacher.

The aim of Noire was to help high school pupils create, perform and publish original plays.

During the Covid-19 pandemic in 2021, Noire produced Loud Souls 2, its first television programme, which aired online.

Ms Pogson-Nesbitt also writes, produces and directs the Youth Theatrical Travelling Road Show with the Ministry of Youth, Culture and Sport.

She has helped to propel the careers of Bermudian actors Lana Young, Darren Herbert, Candace Furbert and Nicholas Christopher.

Ms Pogson-Nesbitt, who lives in Ghana, said that she was happy to continue her longstanding relationship with the Rotary Club, where she has worked for many years.

She added: “Their motto, ‘Service above self’, is my motto.

“So today was the completion of something that already started.”