British warship HMS Lancaster will roll into Dockyard today as she heads out on a nine-month Atlantic patrol deployment.

But the frigate and her crew have some important work to do while on the Island before they leave on Wednesday.

A team of sailors will be sent to the Military Cemetery in St George’s to prepare the graveyard for a poignant memorial service to the Island’s only Victoria Cross recipient Petty Officer George Samson, who was buried there in 1923.

The event is one of two overlapping memorials planned for April 25 in Bermuda to mark the 100th anniversary of the First World War.

The ceremony to commemorate Petty Officer Samson’s bravery will be held at the St George’s graveyard at 5pm on the same day as a ceremony in his hometown of Carnoustie in Scotland. A further event to mark the contributions of Australians and New Zealanders in the Gallipoli landings will be held at Coral Beach.

“Bermuda’s links to both these 100th anniversary events is tangential, but real,” said Governor George Fergusson.

“I am delighted that it is going to be properly marked.

“One of Her Majesty’s Deputy Lieutenants for Angus, Dr Sandy McKendrick, will visit Bermuda for the George Samson event.

“Members of the ship’s company of HMS Lancaster will be visiting the cemetery ahead of the ceremony to pay respects and to do some tidying up of the graves of PO Samson, Private LeGrice and of several Bermudian soldiers of the First World War who are buried nearby.”

Petty Officer Samson won the VC for taking boatloads of wounded men from the landing beach on Gallipoli to safety on a ship, despite suffering wounds himself.

The anniversary of the Gallipoli landings also has significance for many Australians and New Zealanders.

Mr Fergusson added: “For the last three years, the Australian and New Zealand community in Bermuda has joined their compatriots around the world in having a ceremony at dawn — for the last two years at the Cenotaph in Hamilton.

“For this centenary year it will take place on the beach at Coral Beach. At Gallipoli itself, the annual beach ceremony will be a very large-scale occasion.

“The ANZAC connection will also be marked at the ceremony for Petty Officer Samson, with a wreath being laid at the grave of the only ANZAC soldier from the First World War buried on the Island, Private Arthur LeGrice, of the New Zealand Expeditionary Force, who died here in 1917.

“These are yet further links that show how much Bermuda is connected to wider events in the world, and has been for a long time.

“I hope that people, with or without Scottish, New Zealand or Australian connections will consider paying their respects at one or other of these events.”