The Town of St George marked the kindness shown to the last casualty of the War of 1812 with a ceremony on Saturday.

The annual ceremony in King’s Square pays tribute to US Navy Midshipman Richard Sutherland Dale, who died aged 20 in 1815 after being wounded in action against the Royal Navy.

He was brought to Bermuda as a prisoner, and cared for by sympathetic St Georgians, but died from his injuries, and was buried in St Peter’s churchyard.

His grateful family saluted the kindness shown to their son in the inscription at his grave, where a ceremony honouring his memory was begun in 1932.

The ceremony faded with the departure of US forces from Bermuda in 1995, but was brought back in 2006.

The TS Admiral Sea Cadet Corp served as the honour guard for the ceremony, with the Reverend Erskine Simmons telling the story of Midshipman Dale.

Wreaths were laid on Dale’s grave by the Governor, John Rankin, Mary Ellen Koenig, the US Consul General, Captain John Rodgaard, representing the US Naval Order, and Judy Pearson of the 1805 Club.