Each year, Ocracoke School’s principal selects four seniors to participate in the ceremony at Ocracoke’s British Cemetery. This year two seniors and two sophomores were selected to represent the school during the event. Read about these students below!
Alston Belch is the 17-year-old son of Ivey and Laura. Currently a senior, he will be graduating high school in 2019. Alston was accepted into Elizabeth City State University, where he will begin studying Aviation Science this fall. His plan is to earn a Bachelor’s Degree as well as obtain a pilot’s license. Alston plans to eventually get his commercial pilot's license and move up toward flying for airlines. He’s also considering going through the Coast Guard academy and joining as an officer.
Alston’s great-grandfather John Thomas O’Neal was present while the four sailors of HMT Bedfordshire were buried in what became Ocracoke’s British Cemetery.
Caroline Novak is an eighteen year old senior at Ocracoke School who moved to the island in 2014 with her family. She plans to go to Methodist University in the fall where she will study education and theatre to be an educator one day in the future. Her hobbies include reading, writing and loving on her pets.
Kenzie Novak is a 15-year-old sophomore at Ocracoke School. While she has no connections to the history of Ocracoke, she is happy to learn and help around the island.
Rebecca Boos is a sophomore at Ocracoke School who enjoys spending time with family and friends. She also enjoys learning about history, science, and how stuff works, as well as acting. Rebecca is also an avid animal lover and a junior volunteer firefighter.
Her family donated part of the land where sailors from HMT Bedfordshire are buried.
The British Cemetery graveside ceremony begins at 11am on Friday, May 10, followed immediately by a reception at the Berkley Barn, 58 Water Plant Road. The ceremony commemorates the sinking of the H.M.T. Bedfordshire off the of Ocracoke 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 77th commemoration of four British World War II soldiers buried in the small plot of British land along British Cemetery Road.