A little-known World War II fact is that while the conflict was far away for many Americans, danger lurked right offshore as German U-boats parked along the coast to aim at passing Allied ships.
Islanders were prohibited from going out to the beach for a good part of the war because the government thought that Germans might try to land.
And while they did not land on Ocracoke, casualties sometimes washed up on the island’s shores, which is what happened on May 11, 1942, when the bodies of two British sailors from the torpedoed H.M.T. Bedfordshire were discovered on the beach. Two more bodies were discovered later.
Islanders rallied and a family donated the land for the burials.
Sub-Lt. Thomas Cunningham and Ordinary Telegraphist Second Class Stanley Craig were the only ones identified of the four sailors interred in this small patch of England.
The Ocracoke community, the U.S. Coast Guard, the Coast Guard Auxiliary, and the Friends of the Graveyard of the Atlantic Museum have worked together to care for the gravesites and honor these British sailors each year since.
This 83rd remembrance ceremony will begin at 11 a.m. on Friday, May 9, and afterwards attendees are invited to a light luncheon in the Ocracoke School Commons.
The Bedfordshire was part of the Royal Navy Patrol Service (RNPS) and was one of 24 trawlers the British government pressed into service as advance-guard mine sweepers and escorts for British supply ships.
Representatives from the British Royal Navy and Royal Canadian Navy will take part in the ceremony as will members of the United States Coast Guard, the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, North American representatives of the RNPS and students from Ocracoke School.
A similar ceremony will be held the day before at the British Cemetery in Buxton.
It honors Fourth Engineer Officer Michael Cairns and an unidentified sailor killed when German U-boat 203 sank the British armed tanker San Delfino off Pea Island on April 10, 1942.
Donations from the public contribute to landscaping the garden area and hosting the luncheon. The U.S. Coast Guard, aided by local and visiting volunteers, provides the physical labor at the site, overseen by a local representative of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission. An Ocracoke restaurant caters the luncheon, served by community volunteers.
Businesses, residents, and visitors are encouraged to make a donation to help support this event.
Please donate online at ocracokepreservationsociety.org/donations or make checks payable to Ocracoke
Preservation Society with “British Cemetery” in the memo line and mail to: OPS, Box 1240, Ocracoke, NC 27960.
OPS is also seeking volunteers for the reception. For more information, contact Warner Passanisi at admin@ocracokepreservationsociety.org, or 252-928-7375.
The day before the Ocracoke ceremony, a ceremony to honor the crew of San Delfino, a British armed tanker torpedoed by German U-boat 203 off Pea Island in April 1942, will be held at 11 a.m. on May 8 at the Buxton British Cemetery near the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse. Buried at the site are Fourth Engineer Officer Michael Cairns of the Royal Merchant Navy and an unknown sailor from the same attack, which killed all 28 men aboard San Delfino.
The Graveyard of the Atlantic Museum in Hatteras will be closed to the public on May 8 as staff takes part in the ceremony and related activities scheduled that day.
