The Royal Naval Cemetery

Known as bucolically as “The Glade,” Bermuda’s small Royal Naval Cemetery holds the remains of British naval officers posted to Bermuda who died during the 19th and 20th centuries including victims of drowning, and sunstroke, but mostly yellow fever. 

Many of the soldiers who perished in mid-Atlantic battles during the World Wars, instead of being returned to their home countries, were simply buried on the nearby islands. The Royal Naval Cemetery in Bermuda was actually established before the docks it was meant to serve were even complete, almost as though it was a statement on the acceptance of death during wartime. In any event, before the large population of military men were buried in the cemetery, which in the beginning were open to all (except for convicts), an outbreak of yellow fever quickly began to fill up the plots.  

During World War II, a number of the soldiers who died in nearby engagements were buried in the naval cemetery as it transitioned to a private military burial ground. American forces would later lease some of the land on the island from the British government, but this cemetery stands as a reminder of who owned the land first.