And so on Monday, about two dozen of its members gathered before sunrise over bacon sandwiches and mimosas, around a bar at the Daylesford Theater draped with Union Jack flags, to toast “To Her Majesty” on the somber occasion of the funeral. her. “We feel a kinship with her,” said Alan Brooks, 67, a retail manager in Bermuda who served in the Royal Navy. “Whenever there were special circumstances in her life that we felt we needed to highlight, we have. … And sadly, we now mark the last event in her life.” Those gathered in the theater watched in silence for the most part. Some sang, softly or hummed the hymns. All supported “God Save the King.” As Elizabeth gives way to Charles, the kingdoms consider severing ties Bermuda’s governor declared Monday a public holiday here and many of the bars, banks, restaurants and shops on the trendy, pastel-hued Front Street promenade were closed. Governor Rena Lalgie and Prime Minister David Burt were in London for the funeral. Tanya Davis, Lalgie’s private secretary, said officials expected most Bermudians to attend the funeral at home. They were planning a service at the Holy Trinity Cathedral on September 24. But not everyone attended the funeral. Some were apathetic or indifferent. At an open-air pub in Hamilton, the funeral was on the televisions, but the one couple dining there early Monday afternoon paid little attention. Dylan Wilson, 25, said he caught footage of the funeral procession on television. Wilson, who works in digital marketing, said he hasn’t thought much about the British royal family or the Queen, but was happy to have a day off. Chris Smith felt differently. The 25-year-old project manager did not attend the funeral, choosing to spend the morning exercising and planning his week. He said he was going to walk his dog in the afternoon. “I’m very upset about the holiday,” Smith said. “A lot to do and everything is closed.” Elizabeth came to Bermuda many times. Her first visit was with Prince Philip in 1953, during her six-month tour of the Commonwealth after her coronation. Kim Day, president of the executive committee of the Bermuda Musical and Dramatic Society, has fond memories of a visit in 1994 when the Queen had a short chat with local Scouts. Her son was one of them. “I was about two feet away from her,” Day recalls. “It was back in the days before mobile phones, so no one took a real close-up photo, which is a real shame.” The Bermuda Musical and Dramatic Society, an amateur theater founded in 1945, planned the funeral screening late last week. Jennifer Campbell, a Canadian who has lived in Bermuda since 2001, said some of its members are like her: expatriates from the Commonwealth realms, countries where the British monarch is head of state. He said he was in “awe” of Elizabeth. “She took an oath to serve her whole life when she became queen and she did,” said Campbell, who was dressed in a shirt with a sequined Union Jack flag. “He never, ever gave up. Her commitment was to the monarchy, and she never wavered from it. … I know a lot of people have different feelings about the monarchy itself.” Including Bermuda. Burt said last week that “Elizabeth’s life and the stability of her service meant that whether we accepted the idea of ​​monarchy or not, ‘The Queen’ was the single most immovable feature on the world stage.” Bermuda has a crown-appointed governor, who represents the British monarch, and a parliament of elected members. As with other overseas territories, Britain is responsible for defence, security and foreign policy. The islands were named after Juan de Bermúdez, the Spanish sailor who discovered them, uninhabited, in 1505. A century later, Sir George Somers, a British admiral, was sailing the merchant ship Sea Venture to Jamestown with a group of settlers when was caught in a treacherous storm and shipwrecked here. (The shipwreck is believed to have inspired Shakespeare’s ‘The Tempest.’) An Australian democracy? In the Queen’s eponymous city, they won’t drink in it. In 1612, King James issued a charter to the investors of the Virginia Company of London that extended the boundaries of their colony to Bermuda. Several dozen British settlers arrived and established a settlement at St. George, one of the oldest in the Western Hemisphere. The Crown took over administration of the colony in 1684. Shortly after settlement, the colonists brought enslaved people to Bermuda, many of whom were transported via the Middle Passage from Africa. Slavery was abolished here in the 19th century, but blacks continued to be segregated for more than a century afterward. Debates about independence here have long ebbed and flowed. In a 1995 referendum, some 73 percent of voters rejected a break with the crown. Citizens Eradicating Racism in Bermuda described independence as a “natural progression” for a modern democracy, but “the death of the monarch should not in itself be a trigger for Bermudians to seek independence”. “We have been settled since 1612, have our own constitution, laws, traditions, currency and culture, and frankly it is very difficult to see how being a colony or overseas territory benefits Bermuda in any tangible way,” the group told Royal . Newspaper Newspaper. Sandy Amott, 64, was born and raised in Bermuda to English parents. He admired the Queen for her seven decades of service and was moved to learn of her death. “In a way, I’m very sorry to be here today,” said Amott, secretary. “I just thought he was going to live forever and I’m so sad. But rest in peace, Elizabeth, and long live the king.”