The Governor, Rena Lalgie, and military aides commemorated the 50th anniversary of the assassination of Sir Richard Sharples at a ceremony in London on Friday.

Ms Lalgie and her aide-de-camp, Captain Alexander Gibbs, attended a memorial service at the Royal Military Chapel in London in memory of the late Governor and his aide-de-camp, Captain Hugh Sayers.

Also on Friday, former aides-de-camp of Bermuda’s governors gathered at St Peter’s Church in St George’s for a wreath-laying service with Tom Oppenheim, the Deputy Governor.

Sir Richard and Captain Sayers were assassinated on March 10, 1973 by men associated with the Black power group the Black Beret Cadre.

They were buried at St Peter’s Church in St George’s.

The London memorial service, hosted by the Welsh Guards, was attended by members of the Sharples and Sayers families, as well as the Duchess of Gloucester, the Colonel-in-Chief of the Royal Bermuda Regiment, the former governors Sir John Vereker and George Fergusson, and former colleagues of the late Governor and Captain Sayers.

Ms Lalgie said: “I was honoured to attend the service to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the assassinations of Sir Richard Sharples and Captain Hugh Sayers at the Royal Military Chapel in London.

“It was a poignant service which marked the sacrifice of two men who were taken from their families far too early.

“The memory of Sir Richard and Captain Sayers will remain not only with their families but also with the Welsh Guards and the people of Bermuda.”

Erskine Durrant Burrows and Larry Tacklyn were arrested for the assassination and several other murders.

Burrows was found guilty of the two assassinations and two other murders while Tacklyn was convicted of killing two other men.

Both men were hanged on December 2, 1977, becoming the last people to be executed under British rule in history.

The executions were followed by three days of riots, which later required help from soldiers from the 1st Battalion Royal Regiment of Fusiliers to quell.

In Bermuda, Mr Oppenheim attended St Peter’s Church with other former aides-de-camp to lay wreaths.

Mr Oppenheim laid a wreath on the grave of Sir Richard, while Major (retired) Alvin Daniels, MVO, who became aide-de-camp immediately after the assassinations, laid a wreath on the grave of Captain Sayers.

Major Daniels said: “I was honoured to have been asked to lay the wreath on the grave of the late Captain Hugh Sayers, ADC, on the sombre occasion of the 50th anniversary of his death in the presence of the Acting Governor and former ADCs.

“On behalf of the 23 ADCs who followed in his footsteps, our thoughts and prayers go out to the families of both Sir Richard Sharples and Captain Hugh Sayers.”