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British Military Graves in Bermuda

Thousands of soldiers, sailors and families died from fevers and were buried locally

By Keith Archibald Forbes (see About Us) exclusively for Bermuda Online

To refer to this web file use "bermuda-online.org/britishmilitarygravesbda.htm" as your Subject

Our other files on military topics in Bermuda include:

• American military bases in Bermuda until 1995
• Bermuda Forts by British Army
• Canadian Forces Station Bermuda
• Royal Naval Dockyard in Bermuda

The Bermuda National Trust (BNT)  - which is affiliated with the National Trusts of England, Wales, Northern Ireland; Scotland; and more has a contract to maintain all twelve historic and military - and Commonwealth War Graves Commission - graveyards in Bermuda. It - not this author - should be contacted about any British Army graves in Bermuda. The Commonwealth Graves Commission provides an annual grant to the BNT to look after them. The author has no additional information beyond what you see below. All such records were taken by the unit back to the United Kingdom. Best places to check are the regimental museums concerned, mostly in the United Kingdom, or British Army records.  British military graveyards in Bermuda are not frequently visited despite being in full public view. But they will be of great interest to any military historian. Sadly, some of the graves have clearly been badly neglected and have deteriorated greatly. Some can no longer be identified as their military plaques have disappeared.

Also see The Army Children Archive (TACA) which helps British Army children to know if a parent was posted to Bermuda and if they died there, are recorded as being in one of the following: 

Introduction

Photographs below are by author Keith Archibald Forbes exclusively for Bermuda Online.

British Military Cemetery names and locations

Ferry Reach Military Cemeteries, St. George’s Parish. Ferry Reach Park, Phone: (441) 236-6483. Bus Routes (part of the way only) 1, 3, 10, 11.  Admission is free. Two, with graves from the yellow fever epidemic in the 1860s.  The first is the small walled cemetery close to the house at the end of Ferry Point and the second can be found just off the Railway Trail overlooking the North Shore to the east of Whalebone Bay.  This is a walled communal grave with a central cross memorial to those from the 2nd Battalion of the Queen’s Royal Rifles who died of yellow fever.
Garrison Cemetery, Prospect, Devonshire Parish. Greenwich Lane, off Alexandria Road, Fort Hill, from Middle Road. Phone: (441) 236-6483. Bus Route (part of the way only): 3.  Admission is free.  The cemetery until 1953 for the British Army in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries when Prospect Barracks housed the central British garrison.  This cemetery contains many fine examples of classic tombstone masonry, including the last resting place of Governor Sir Walter Kitchener.  Later, it become the police cemetery and an assassinated Police Commissioner is buried here.
St. George’s Military Cemeteries, St. George’s Parish. Two, one at Grenadier Lane and the other at Secretary Road, north of the St. George's Golf Course, approximately 15 minutes walk apart.  They are north and east respectively of the old British Army Garrison Town of St. George's. Phone: (441) 236-6483. Bus Routes (part of the way only): 1, 3, 6, 10, 11. Admission is free. Both overlook the sea and are the final resting place of yellow fever victims of the 19th century, c.1850. One particularly interesting grave at Grenadier Lane is that of a surgeon. He served in the Crimean War at the battles of Balaclava and Sebastapol only to succumb to yellow fever in tranquil Bermuda. Over the hill to the west the Military Cemetery on Secretary Road has perhaps the most notable monumental sculpture of any of the Bermuda Military Cemeteries. Additionally, George Sampson, Victoria Cross holder of the Royal Naval Reserve, is interred here. Some older military graves are also included in the neighbouring Secretary Road cemeteries.
Royal Naval Cemetery, Ireland Island South in Sandys Parish. On Malabar Road, approaching the former RN Dockyard. Phone: (441) 236-6483. Bus Routes: 7, 8.  Admission is free.  The Royal Navy purchased the land where the cemetery sits in 1909 and consecrated the ground in 1812. The cemetery grew in size and was open for burial to all until 1849 when convicts were excluded. Also known as ‘The Glade,’ it has memorials to many Royal Navy personnel from warships stationed here who died of the yellow fever that ravaged the British military in Bermuda during the mid-19th century. An Admiral is buried here. It also records the numerous accidents that befell the young servicemen in Bermuda, including deaths during World War 2 when Bermuda was a transit point in the Battle of the Atlantic.
Somerset Military Cemetery, Somerset. Located west of Watford Bridge, off Mangrove Bay Road, immediately west of Watford Bridge behind bus stop. Phone: (441) 236-6483. Bus Routes: 7, 8. Admission is free.  The cemetery contains 13 Commonwealth war graves from WW1. Among them are West Indians and Canadians and three Bermudians of the Bermuda Militia Artillery, who died of accidental injuries in 1915.  The cemetery was consecrated in 1903 and the latest memorial is dated 1918.
Watford Cemetery, Somerset. Phone: (441) 236-6483. Bus Routes: 7, 8. Admission is free. On the right going to Royal Naval Dockyard immediately after crossing Watford Bridge, hidden at end of footpath from car park.  Contains memorials to soldiers and their families from 1853-1899. Here the Queen's Regiment honored their comrades, who died of yellow fever in the 1864 epidemic.  This cemetery became the final resting place of four Grenadier guardsmen who died when the 2nd Battalion was stationed in Bermuda in 1891.   Also, in this place of serene beauty, lie the graves of soldiers from other regiments

Countless officers and other ranks - far too many to itemize here so shown are only a small sampling - are interred in these graveyards. Many of the tombs were erected by fellow officers or non-commissioned officers as marks of respect. Some were inscribed, complete with the regiment's insignia, while others were plain. So many died that it is impossible to show all their gravestones. 

Graves of men of the British Army's 42nd Regiment (Royal Highlanders or Black Watch) who died in Bermuda from yellow fever in 1847 when the regiment was stationed here from 1847-1851.

The men wore dark tartan to distinguish them from Guardsmen or Red Soldiers - hence the name Black Watch. Bermuda's Black Watch Well at the junction with the North Shore Road is named in tribute. It was dug in 1849. When the Governor ordered British soldiers to seek a fresh water supply for the poor of Pembroke Parish and their cattle during a prolonged drought, the Black Watch was the first to volunteer and dug so thoroughly the facility still exists today. One of the officers was Captain G. W. MacQuarie, who lived in St. George's at what was then Rendell House, later the Redan Hotel, now Clyde's Cafe. Several of this unit's soldiers are not in this graveyard but were buried at St. Peter's Church in St. George's. They include Ensign Maitland, Ensign Abercromby and beside them the grave of bandmaster Philip Goldbergh. 

In Aberfeldy, Perthshire, Scotland, a monument - still there - was erected in 1887 to mark the enrolment in 1740 of the Black Watch as the 42nd Regiment of the line. The "Watch" as it was known originally was first raised in 1667 by various Whig clan chiefs "to be a constant guard for securing the peace in the Highlands and to watch upon the braes."  

2nd Battalion 56th Regiment (West Essex), 1851-53

Typical of the regiments that were decimated in Bermuda by yellow fever. In 1853 alone, nearly 230 of its officers and men died in Bermuda from yellow fever. One of them was Lieutenant Alexander George Woodford, who died on September 12, 1853 when his unit was stationed in St. George's - then a garrison town. He was buried at St. Peter's Church. The Woodford Memorial Tablet is still there. His father was Field Marshal Sir Alexander George Woodford. Others - included in a separate mention at the same church at the same time - included Captain E. F. Hare, Captain G. S. Hanson, Lieutenant F. H. Sykes and many more officers, men and their wives and children. The cemetery for yellow fever victims of this regiment is in Ferry Reach Park, St. George's Parish. 

26th Foot Regiment (Cameronians or Scottish Rifles), 1854-59

The regiment dates back to when Richard Cameron the field preacher declared war on King Charles II For his pains - no pun intended -  he and his followers were cut to pieces by dragoons at Airdmoss outside Auchinleck on July 22, 1680.  But in the reign of King William III the organization came into its own and Camerons and men from Skye formed the left wing at Killiecrankie.  It was where "Bonnie Dundee" was killed and the Stuart cause lost.  The 1st Battalion of the Cameronians is directly descended from the Cameronian Guard embodied in 1689.  In Bermuda, the regiment had a special instructor shipped out from England to give the men courses on the use of the Enfield Rifle.  Many men died and were buried in Bermuda from yellow fever. Three of the graves are shown here, one opposite and two below.

Bermuda graves at the main military graveyard in St. George's of 26th Foot Regiment (Cameronians or Scottish Rifles)

39th Regiment, 1859 - 1865

It was known to be here until at least 1864 because the 39th Regimental Band gave a concert in January of that year for amateur dramatics night of children of garrison officers. Members of the regiment, like this private, are buried in the military graveyard at St. Georges.

2nd Battalion, 2nd Queens Regiment (Queen's Royals), 1864

At the end of the US Civil War in case of repercussions from the USA from the victorious North. It was feared the hawks of the North would try to attack Bermuda for the help Bermudians gave to the South despite a strict British Government order of neutrality. Many of this regiment's members died in Bermuda from yellow fever and were buried in the military graveyard at St. Georges.

30th Regiment, 1864

Its 2nd posting to Bermuda. It came from Montreal to Bermuda for two reasons, one strategic as mentioned above, the other  to relieve other units of the British Army in Bermuda losing men from the effects of yellow fever.  One of its members, Dr. David Milroy, MD, FRCS, died and was buried in Bermuda on 3 September 1864, at the age of 38, from yellow fever, after treating men for it. There is this handsome grave to him in the St. George's military graveyard.

Royal Engineers (originally Royal Miners and Sappers), continuously

For the British Army, they built roads in Bermuda in the 1840s, long before the American military did in the 1950s. They paved and repaired the original military (now a civilian) road from Fort Prospect in Pembroke Parish to the Royal Naval Dockyard in the west and the garrison town of St. George's in the east - and erected the rifle range at what used to be the British Army training camp on the Old Military South Road - now the South Road - in Warwick Parish. Many died here from the effects of yellow fever, as did this officer.

Royal Artillery, continuously

Especially after the 1840s. Many died here from the effects of yellow fever, as did these officers.

1st Battalion, 15th Regiment (Yorkshire), 1868-70 

Until 1868, they were at St. John's, New Brunswick, Canada. In Bermuda, a unit under Major Wilkinson was relocated from St. George's in July 1868 to Boaz Island because of typhoid and yellow fevers. But it did not help. Ensign William Gaskin died at Boaz Island in 1868 and because it was so much closer than the British Army graveyards, was buried at the Naval Cemetery at Ireland Island. Two Sergeants, one drummer, and 13 Privates died and were buried in Bermuda British Army military graveyards. At HQ, Assistant Surgeon John Dennis Healy died at St. George's on 19 June 1868 and was buried there. To make up for these losses a draft of 102 men under Captain Moffatt arrived from the Depot at Chatham on October 24, 1868.

British - non-military - graveyards in Bermuda include several Anglican (Episcopalian) Parish churches where, during World War 2, civilians and Merchant Navy personnel who perished at sea as victims of German U-boat attacks against torpedoed ships, were brought to Bermuda for burial. One example is St. Paul's in Paget Parish.  For details of where outside of Bermuda British soldiers are buried overseas during world wars - not the case in any of the pre-1914 burials in Bermuda, but certainly so during World Wars 1 and 2, consult the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.

All photographs above are by author  Keith Archibald Forbes