State

British Graveyard at Ocracoke The islanders slill honor four sailors whom fate — and World War II — east upon their shore. By LVN PALADINO Summertime visitors to Ocracokc Island, and tourists with a penchant for cobia fishing, for exploring old wrecks, for camping at two National Park Ser¬ vice campsites, and for swimming in the Atlantic easily satisfy these desires, yet few tourists know about the four British sailors buried in the British Graveyard on the village environs. Rarer still arc tourists who know the reason four British sailors are buried under American soil. Northeast on the road to Northern Pond is the British Graveyard. The road, though paved and scarcely better than some of the shaded sandy lanes on Ocracoke. is wide enough to accept an auto. The hasty tourist drives past the small graveyard, unless he parks his car off the road in order to view the Howard-Wahab Graveyard, where de¬ ceased Outer Bankers are buried. Ad¬ mittedly, the juxtaposition of both graveyards is a kind of serendipity — the good fortune to make an unex¬ pected discovery by accident. Approaching the British Graveyard on foot, one experiences an aura of serenity in the moss-covered oaks and yaupon. White palings form an oblong perimeter around the four graves. Four crosses mark the four graves, and on each cross is a metal platelet. Two platelets bear names: "Seaman Stanley Craig” and “Lt. Thomas Cunning¬ ham." The remaining platelets contain two neutral words: “Seaman Uniden¬ tified.” Washed Ashore The men had served aboard the H.M.S. Bedfordshire, a North Sea trawler that was converted to a patrol boat and was engaged in submarine- chasing duties. The ship was on patrol between Norfolk and Morchcad City the day it was sunk, presumably off Ocracoke Island. Four bodies had washed ashore on May 14. 1942. They were discovered by a local resident who notified the island Coast Guard station. A fifth body was found on Pamlico Sound, indicating it had passed through Ocracokc Inlet. During World War II England had THE STATE. APRIL I, 1970 sent many ships to the United States in order to patrol our northeast coast, es¬ pecially between Norfolk and Cape Lookout. The aggressiveness of Ger¬ man submarine packs submerged dar¬ ingly offshore and the staggering toll of allied sinkings attributed to German U-boats, from Bodic to Ocracoke Islands, necessitated the increased sur¬ veillance with additional ships. On each patrol the Bedfordshire made, it had to pass through waters characteristically called "Torpedo Junction." Coast Guardsmen from the Ocra¬ coke Station recovered the bodies, brought them into the village, and ar¬ ranged for identification. Lt. Aycock Brown. USN. an Outer Banker him¬ self, flew in from Norfolk, where he was stationed, to identify the bodies. He went to the warehouse where the bodies had been placed; they lay under a tarpaulin. Lt. Brown turned back the canvas, retreated a step, uncertain of the irony. Three days before the Bedfordshire was sunk Lt. Brown had shared a meal with Lt. Cunningham at Norfolk. Seaman Craig had an identi¬ fication tag around his neck; the other two had no identification. Sailors Honored A burial service was arranged by the Coast Guard, with a Methodist lay preacher conducting part of the ser¬ vice. The late Mrs. Alice Williams owned the properly that later became the British Graveyard. She had gen¬ erously provided the land so that the four bodies could be interred. Mrs. and Mrs. Theodore Rond- thalcr, now retired school teachers from the Ocracoke school system, were responsible for supervising a me¬ morial service at the gravesite each year thereafter. For this annual service they enlisted school children to assist them. In addition, the couple was in¬ strumental in persuading the Coast Guard to keep the graveyard palings repaired and painted. Mrs. Rondthalcr even wrote to the British Embassy re¬ questing British flags for the graves. King George Vi’s Secretary- of the Am¬ bassador responded with flags that one occasion, but never again. Now the flags arc donated each year by private citizens, the Р.Т.Л. and the Civic Club. The Ocracokc Boy Scouts make an annual clean up pilgrimage, clearing the graveyard of litter, weeds, fallen leaves, broken twigs and branches. The island residents main¬ tain the graveyard to this day. On the graveyard gate is a copper plaque, verdigrised from air and salt spray, inscribed with the following lines: If I should die. think only this of me. That there's some comer of a foreign field That is forever England. The lines are from the sonnet "The Soldier" by Rupert Brooke. English poet who saw service in Belgium in 1914. when World War I broke out. The idealistic patriotic mood of the poem is appropriate for the sleep of eternal peace in an alien land.