British Cemetery - HMT Bedfordshire

In 1976, as part of the state's bicentennial celebration, the site was leased in perpetuity to the Commonwealth War Graves Commission and remains British Property to this day. The cemetery is currently cared for by the U.S. Coast Guard Station at Ocracoke and a formal service is held at the site on May 12 each year.

Graves of Sub Lt. Thomas Cunningham R.N.V.R , Stanley R. Craig – telegraphist and two unidentified crewmen.

The remains of a fifth Bedfordshire crewman washed up near Swam Quarter, North Carolina. This was Ordinary Seaman Alfred Dryden. Dryden's body was initially buried near the Hyde County Poor House in Swan Quarter; however, it was reinterred at Oak Grove Baptist Church in Creeds, Virginia. A sixth body washed ashore near Hatteras on May 21. Though this body was unidentifiable, it was determined that given its location and timing that it was likely a crewmember of Bedfordshire. This unidentified sailor was buried near the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse. (Office of National Marine Sanctuaries - see link)

"If I should die think only this of me that there's some corner of a foreign field that is forever England.” - Rupert Brooke (The Soldier)

These crosses were cast by the T. A. Loving Construction Company for the United States Navy in 1942. For forty-one years, they marked the graves of the four Bedfordshire crewmen. In 1983, the Commonwealth War Graves Commission replaced them with regulation British grave markers. David Esham was President of the newly formed Ocracoke Preservation Society and managed to save the crosses from being destroyed. They were stored under the Pony Island Motel and, subsequently, under the Ocracoke Preservation Society Museum until 2001. In May of that year, at the request of the United States Coast Guard, the Graveyard of the Atlantic Museum and the Ocracoke Preservation Society; the Commonwealth War Graves Commission gave permission to display the crosses on site. In May 2005, the people of Ocracoke Island donated the black granite memorial commemorating the loss of HMT Bedfordshire and her crew in action against U-558. This gallant ship and crew were lost protecting our coast during World War II.

HMT BEDFORDSHIRE An arctic trawler, built in 1935 by Smith’s Dock Co. of Middlebrough, England. In 1939 sold to the Admiralty and converted to an armed trawler. In 1942 it was one of the 24 trawlers loanded to the U.S. Navy for coastal patrol. Armament: one 4” gun, one machine gun and depth charges.