Remembering British sailors: Part of Carteret’s WW II ‘DNA’

Perhaps the compassion shown for those who served in World War II is what sets Carteret County, N.C., apart in its quest to earn recognition as a “World War II Heritage Community.” Our formal resolution in support of such designation is nearing completion.

 

Whereas No. 15: Morehead City took great pride in welcoming survivors of the battles at sea during World War II who were brought here for care and treatment.

As one example, the community embraced the 22 crew members rescued off the San Delfino, a British tanker that was destroyed when it was torpedoed by U-203 on April 9, 1942.

Shortly thereafter, two bodies from the San Delfino washed ashore on Core Banks and were delivered to the Morehead City morgue. They were identified as Sailor John Latto Fisher of Scotland and Artillery Gunner Maldwyn Jones of Wales.

Locals rallied to ensure these war heroes received a proper burial. A graveside service was held in Bayview Cemetery on April 30, 1942.

Military historian Paul Branch (shown below) said: “About a week after the bodies of Fisher and Jones were laid to rest, a third body from the San Delfino washed up.”

 

Branch said that county coroner Alphonso Hamilton James of Bell and James Funeral Home in Morehead City performed “a common technique at the time – removing the skin from the fingertips and then rehydrating it.”

James scoured through British fingerprint records to positively identify the body of Able Seaman James Robinson Watt of Scotland.

The paperwork that identified Watt was lost, however, when the funeral home was destroyed by fire, Branch said.

“With no concrete proof of identification, the Commonwealth War Graves Commission is reluctant to confirm the identity,” Branch said.

Therefore, the third gravestone in the small British section at Bayview Cemetery continues to contain the words “A Sailor of the 1939-1945 War. Known Unto God.”

Herb Stanford, author of two books about Carteret County history (shown below), reviewed Branch’s research and stated that the “unknown San Delfino seaman is almost absolutely certain” to be James Robinson Watt.

 

Whereas No. 16: For the aforementioned “proper burial” of the British seamen from the San Delfino, Morehead City community leaders set out to find British Royal Navy Flags to display.

The task fell to Aycock Brown, a former newspaper editor in Beaufort (shown below), who spent the war years working as a special civilian agent for the Naval Intelligence Office.

 

Brown marched down to the Morehead City waterfront in April 1942 and struck up a conversation with Lt. Thomas Cunningham. He was the commanding officer of the Bedfordshire, an armed British trawler, which had been sent over to assist in the war against the German U-boats and was docked in Morehead City.

Lt. Cunningham and Aycock Brown mulled over the situation, while sharing a tumbler or two of British rum. Lt. Cunningham, who had become a popular figure about town, gladly gave Brown the flags he needed as well as several spares.

Just a few days after the graveside service, the Bedfordshire, while on patrol off Cape Lookout on May 11, 1942, was torpedoed by Germany’s U-558. All 37 hands aboard died.

 

Carteret County people were both stunned and greatly saddened about the sinking of the Bedfordshire.

Carteret County historian Rodney Kemp (shown below) noted that one of the ironies of war is…“one of those extra Royal Navy Flags that had been donated by Lt. Cunningham would be used to commemorate his own gravesite in Ocracoke.”

 

Lt. Cunningham’s body was one of four from the Bedfordshire that washed ashore on Ocracoke and were buried in a small British Cemetery there.