During World War II, many British ships and sailors were lost off the coast of North Carolina to German U-Boat attacks. The HMS Bedfordshire was just such a story.

A man named Aycock Brown had the unfortunate job of trying to identify bodies that washed up on the shores of Ocracoke. Upon learning that two bodies that washed up around the beginning of May were British, Brown traveled to where the HMS Bedfordshire was anchored to ask the British Captain if he could have two "Union Jacks" -- the National Flag of Great Britain -- to drape over the coffins. The Captain of the ship, Thomas Cunningham, was in good spirits, having just learned his wife was expecting their first child. After conversation and a bit of rum, Cunningham gave Brown four of the flags, saying that more British soldiers may wash up. Two weeks later, Brown did indeed find a use for the two extra flags -- he used one of them to cover the coffin of Thomas Cunningham after the HMS Bedfordshire had been torpedoed by U-558 several days earlier. Below are pictures of the British Cemetery on Ocracoke Island.