Lyme Prepares For Sir George Somers Parade

People will come together in Lyme Regis, the small English town where Sir George Somers hailed from on July 31, 2013, for the annual parade celebrating the life and accomplishments of the man.

Somers served as the mayor of the town of Lyme, prompting a celebration of his work and exploits that began there in 1980. This year’s festivities will include an especially large contingent of civic representatives from the island, including St. George’s deputy mayor Quinell Francis.

The parade will wind its way from Lyme’s Langmoor Gardens beginning at 11:30am on the morning of July 31, ending at the Cobb for a formal celebration of Somers that will include all attending delegates from Bermuda.

In a full life that saw him become both a beloved politician and a celebrated naval hero, Admiral Sir George Somers enjoyed many notable accomplishments in his life, but he remains best known for establishing a British colony on Bermuda in 1609 after the crew of his ship, the Sea Venture, was heavily damaged in a storm, forcing the captain and crew to seek the first available land in order to survive. That land turned out to be Bermuda.

Everyone on the Sea Venture survived the landing, giving them the opportunity to settle an unofficial colony by building houses and a church, before they were able to construct ships sturdy enough to take them onto Jamestown, Virginia.

Sir George Somers would die only a year later, during a return trip to Bermuda, and it is said that he requested that his heart be buried on the island given his passion for the place; a modern marker in Somers’ Gardens in St. George’s marks the very spot.

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