The British Cemetery ceremony, scheduled for 11 a.m. Friday, May 12, is seeking donations to help with landscaping the grave sites and providing food for the reception afterwards.
This ceremony, organized by the War Graves Committee on Hatteras, remembers the sinking by German U-boats, of the HMT Bedfordshire, a British trawler, off the coast here May 11, 1942. For six months, the U-boat brigade picked off allied convoys like a shooting gallery off the Outer Banks.
This will be the 75th commemoration of the four British World War II soldiers buried in the small plot of British land along British Cemetery Road.
While the Ocracoke Occupancy Tax Board grants money for the cemetery plantings and the reception afterwards, this does not cover the total cost.
To make a donation, send checks by April 30 to OCBA, P.O. Box 456, Ocracoke, NC 27960. Please note “British Cemetery Ceremony” in the memo line.
Volunteers also are needed to help at the reception at the Ocracoke Community Center following the ceremony. For information, call Crystal Canterbury at 252-588-2245, or send an email to crystalcurrentlee@yahoo.com.
