Ocracoke British Cemetery
The Ocracoke British Cemetery is a Commonwealth War Graves Commission cemetery located on Ocracoke Island, North Carolina, United States. The cemetery contains the graves of British and Canadian Royal Navy sailors from HMT Bedfordshire, who lost their lives in the Battle of the Atlantic during the Second World War.
History
The HMT Bedfordshire was sunk by German submarine U-558 on May 11, 1942 off the coast of North Carolina while she was on anti-submarine patrol. All 37 sailors on board were killed. In the following days, the bodies of four sailors washed ashore on Ocracoke Island and were buried by local residents in community cemetery plots. The four sailors were later reinterred in the current plot, and a memorial was erected to honor all sailors from the Bedfordshire.A Royal Navy ensign flies permanently over the cemetery, and an annual memorial service is held on May 11 by the British Royal Navy, United States Coast Guard, Canadian Royal Navy, and United States National Park Service to honor the crew. In 1976, the site was leased in perpetuity to the British government.