| Blue Beach Military Cemetery at San Carlos | |
|---|---|
 The Cemetery in 2003 | |
| For British forces | |
| Unveiled | 10 April 1983 |
| Location | 51°34′25.05″S 59°02′12.12″W / 51.5736250°S 59.0367000°W |
| Designed by | Professor Sir Peter Shepheard |
Blue Beach Military Cemetery at San Carlos is a British war cemetery in the Falkland Islands holding the remains of 14 of the 255 British casualties killed during the Falklands War in 1982, and one other killed in early 1984. It is situated close to where 3 Commando Brigade had its initial headquarters after landing on 21 May 1982.
Up until 1982 all British servicemen killed in action were buried and commemorated as close to the place of death as possible and the Commonwealth War Graves Commission managed these graves.[1]
After the Falklands War, one family requested the repatriation of their fallen son's body and, following this, other families requested the same;[2] as a result, this offer was extended to all relatives. On 16 November 1982 64 of the dead (52 soldiers, 11 Royal Marines, and one laundryman from Hong Kong) were returned to Britain aboard the landing ship Sir Bedivere.
The families of 16 of the dead kept with tradition and preferred their sons' remains should stay in the islands. Fourteen are buried at Port San Carlos with two more at isolated single grave sites at Goose Green and Port Howard. The fifteenth person interred at Port San Carlos is Captain John Belt of the Army Air Corps, who died in a helicopter crash in January 1984.
- ^ Keegan, John (2 June 2006). "We'll miss our corners of a foreign field". The Telegraph. Retrieved 18 April 2022.
- ^ "British families protest Falklands burial for troops". The Michigan Daily. Associated Press. 2 June 1982. Retrieved 25 January 2012.