British Cemetery Memorial Ceremony

The ceremony commemorates the sinking of the H.M.T. Bedfordshire off the coast in 1942. Four sailors from the Bedfordshire are buried on Ocracoke in a small plot of land that is “forever England.” Representatives from the U.S. Coast Guard, British Royal Navy and Royal Canadian Navy, as well as Ocracoke School students, participate in the annual ceremony, which includes a reading of the crew list, the playing of bagpipes, and a 21-gun salute. The event is open to all who wish to pay their respects, and brings family members and World War II historians from all over the world to honor these gravesites. This will be the 82nd commemoration of four British World War II soldiers buried in the small plot of British land along British Cemetery Road.