Annual Buxton and Ocracoke Ceremonies to honor WWII sailors will be held on May 12 and May 13
After being canceled in 2021 due to the Coronavirus pandemic, two annual ceremonies are returning in 2022 to honor the World War II British and Canadian sailors who lost their lives off the Outer Banks 80 years ago.
In mid-May, representatives of the U.S. Coast Guard, Coast Guard Auxiliary, U.S. Navy, British Royal Navy, and National Park Service will come together at the British cemeteries on Hatteras and Ocracoke Islands to honor the 63 foreign sailors who perished while protecting our coast.
The ceremonies are held annually near the anniversary of the sinking of the HMS Bedfordshire, with the first ceremony scheduled for May 12 at 11:00 a.m. in Buxton, and the second ceremony occurring in Ocracoke on May 13 at 11:00 a.m.
The Buxton ceremony honors the service of the men who lost their lives in April of 1942 when the British armed tanker San Delfino was sunk by a German submarine, U-203, just off the shoreline of Pea Island. Two of the men are buried at the British Cemetery in Buxton: Fourth Engineer Officer Michael Cairns of the Royal Merchant Navy from the San Delfino, and an unknown sailor.
The second ceremony will be held the following day at the British Cemetery on Ocracoke Island to pay tribute to the sailors from HMS Bedfordshire, which was sunk in May of 1942 by the German U-558, near the island. The bodies of Sub-Lieutenant Cunningham and Ordinary Telegraphist Second Class Craig are buried at the Ocracoke site, and two bodies were also found in the ocean north of Ocracoke, and although never identified, they were assumed to have come from Bedfordshire, and were interred alongside their shipmates in what would eventually become the Ocracoke British Cemetery.
A reception at the Graveyard of the Atlantic Museum in Hatteras village will follow the Buxton ceremony, while a similar reception will be held after Ocracoke’s ceremony at the Berkley Barn.
To help commemorate the 80th anniversary, the Ocracoke Preservation Society (OPS) is also hosting an evening with historian and author Kevin Duffus at the Ocracoke Community Center on Wednesday, May 11, at 7:00 p.m. In a special multi-media program, Kevin Duffus, author of “War Zone: When World War II was Fought off Ocracoke’s Beaches,” will tell of the time when Ocracoke Island was on the front lines of the war, when the island lost its innocence, and lives of the greatest generation were irrevocably changed. More information on the related Ocracoke events can be found at the Ocracoke British Cemetery’s Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/Ocracoke-British-Cemetery-107102877565310/.
Though the prestigious and in-person ceremonies were canceled in 2021, the Graveyard of the Atlantic Museum also premiered a video last year to honor the sailors of the San Delfino. The video features a brief summary of the event’s history, as well as a reading of the names, ranks, and ages of the sailors who lost their lives in the tragedy. Click here to view the video.
Both the Ocracoke and Buxton British Cemeteries also remain open to the public daily for those who would like to pay their respects. The Buxton British Cemetery is located on Lighthouse Road in Buxton, just past the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse, while the Ocracoke British Cemetery is located on British Cemetery Road off of N.C. Highway 12 near Silver Lake Harbor.
