Sharples (Richard)

Red morocco despatch box by Chubb & Son, bearing Richard Sharples gilt initials on lid, , with a central brass swing handle, some age and handling wear, 39cm wide, 25 cm deep, 13cm high.

PROVENANCE: from the family of Richard Sharples

***Sir Richard Sharples (6 August 1916 – 10 March 1973) was a British politician and Governor of Bermuda who was killed outside Bermuda's Government House on 10 March 1973. An informal dinner party for a small group of guests had just concluded, when he decided to go for a walk with his Great Dane, Horsa, and his aide-de-camp, Captain Hugh Sayers. The two men and dog were ambushed and gunned down outside the Governor's residence. The assassins were linked to a small militant Bermudian Black Power group called the Black Beret Cadre. The shootings at Government House were part of a series of murders and armed robberies that occurred in Bermuda in 1972 and 1973 including the shooting and killing of our Commissioner of Police, George Duckett and the shooting of his daughter at their home in Devonshire. Sharples's assassination would result in the last executions conducted under British rule.