Who, on this Atlantic island archipelago (128 islands) of Bermuda, unique in the world for its history and how it helped colonise the USA, its nearest neighbour, writes, updates, owns and publishes this Bermuda Archives website. Keith A. Forbes, whose family crest is shown here, may be familiar to some of you as an author. He was also the originator, researcher, writer and administrator, updater and webmaster of the huge Bermuda website bermuda-online.org (BOL). It became a key resource for Bermudians, researchers, working newcomers from abroad attracted by Bermuda’s reputation as an international offshore business centre, and visiting tourists. He started BOL from scratch in 1990 and sold it to Bermuda’s Royal Gazette newspaper in 1992. Thereafter, not as an employee of the newspaper but an independent contractor he continued his authorship, research, creation. design, web-mastering and photography for the website for 29 years for which he was paid a modest monthly fee. He was happily married for 34 years to his wife Lois, an American Bermudian from New England, until her death on 3 January 2023 from stage 4 metastatic lung cancer, in England. His disability and her rapidly worsening condition had made their medical expenses unaffordable in Bermuda. They relocated to the United Kingdom with its kindly and comprehensive National Health Service, most recently in Eastbourne, England. Later, her condition got so severe that it made Keith resign his position as Editor of BOL in 2022 in order to care full-time for her. Thereafter, in Keith’s absence, BOL was neglected by the website owners. Now, years later, no longer for the newspaper or BOL, widower Keith again writes about Bermuda, exclusively for this new Bermuda Archives website. In keeping with the title and theme of this website (with AI illustrations by his son Ian), these new files will include details of the former British Army, Royal Navy, Royal Air Force, Canadian and United States military bases in Bermuda. Unlike other Bermuda websites, Bermudaarchives.com will not focus on matters already contained en masse in many tourism-relevant Bermuda websites. The historical files here are not intended to be scholarly detailed works. Rather, they are summaries, plug a few holes in Bermuda’s uniquely fascinating early history. It was from 1515 when first noticed by Spanish and Portuguese seafarers – and still today albeit no longer lonely – a lone outpost in the midst of the wide North Atlantic. It had then – and still does- the odd distinction of of not being American or European or Caribbean but an ancient British colony that has somehow has escaped the attention of most colonial historians, likely solely because of its small size – only 21 square miles or 56 square kilometres – and remote North Atlantic location. But both in one way became a huge advantage. When the age of sail was the only way to travel, it was less than a century after Bermuda was founded in 1609 by accident and not 1612 by design that small but fast Bermudian ships, built of Bermuda cedar, became hugely sought after, traded through the world and even became small Royal Navy ships of war. It was hardly surprising. Tiny Bermuda became, after it was colonised in 1612, although it did not know it and the British never capitalised on it, the most central location in England’s – before it became Britain’s – American empire. It was equidistant from all the New World colonies in a broad thousand-mile arc from Newfoundland to Antigua. Its isolation became an asset, not a liability.. Readers of this website may not know that about 85 percent of all Bermuda’s airline and cruise ship tourists come from the USA. It will interest all researchers and visitors to know some unique facts about Bermuda’s relationship with the USA. Bermuda, as a British territory, was very briefly and unsuccessfully invaded by the USA during the US War of Independence. Until 1899 Bermuda’s defences and forts were not built or updated to keep Europeans at bay but Americans. Regarded as a traitor still in the USA, Bridger Goodrich and his once-Virginian family, as Loyalists, escaped from jail after the War of Independence started and fled to Bermuda where they harassed American ships. Bermuda was the launchpad for the Attack on Washington in 1814. Bermuda’s Royal Naval Dockyard began not long after that, when Canada’s Dockyard at Halifax was deemed to be at risk from the Americans, Canada too had been invaded briefly by the USA. Bermuda had a Loyalist American by birth as a British Colonial Governor. Bermudians favoured the South over the North during the American Civil War. Following that, fearing invasion from the USA, the British Army took over much of Bermuda’s Devonshire and beefed up its postings to defend Bermuda from America. Fort Hamilton was built specifically to defend against the USA.. All this notwithstanding, Bermuda today is the USA’s nearest eastern neighbour and Bermudians regard Americans with special affection and warmth. Keith is a former member of Bermuda’s Broadcasting Commission, Consumer Affairs Board, Board of Education, Junior Chamber International, Reserve Constabulary, Bermuda Regiment, Kiwanis and more. Keith has two sons, Ian in Bermuda, whose IT expertise relating to this website has been immense, and Timothy in the US Army.