At the rear of St. Peter's Church in St. George's, on a plot of land in the shade of a nearby tree, a raised tombstone marks the gravesite of US Midshipman Richard Sutherland Dale, whose life and untimely death have become enduring symbols of a number of timeless truths: the quirkiness of fate, the futility of war, the kindness of Bermudians.

The grave is not, as far as war memorials go, very conspicuous or assuming -- nor is it particularly grand.

In fact, the only thing which indicates that the site may be more than just the resting place of one more victim of war -- in this case the War of 1812 -- is a small metal plaque that was placed on the grave by Midshipman Dale's grieving parents, who wanted to thank "the inhabitants of St. George's'' for their "generous and tender sympathies.'' And yesterday -- Memorial Day in the United States -- those sympathies (as well as the short life that inspired them) were saluted and remembered in a formerly annual ceremony that was inexplicably discontinued some years ago but recently revived.

The ceremony, which included a memorial service in St. Peter's Church and the laying of a wreath on the midshipman's grave, had a particular resonance this year -- 1995 being the year in which the US Navy, one of the driving forces of the ceremony in the past, pulls out of Bermuda permanently.

"I'm not sure what I'll do (to mark the occasion) in the future,'' the Rev.

Anthony Hollis of St. Peter's -- another key player in yesterday's short mid-morning ceremony -- told The Royal Gazette . "This year had a lot of interesting ingredients to it.'' Indeed, the salute to Midshipman Dale has always had an air of the unusual about it, stemming as it did from a set of rather extraordinary circumstances.

On Christmas Eve in 1814, the Treaty of Ghent was signed in Belgium by representatives of the warring US and Britain -- an act which put an end to the conflict of 1812 on paper but didn't quite do so in practice.

Because of the poor communications of the time, hostilities between the nations didn't actually cease until February 17, 1815 -- after such clashes as the Battle of New Orleans were needlessly played out (with the loss of hundreds of lives on both sides) and after the US frigate President tried to slip through a blockade of New York Harbour by Royal Navy vessels (many of which operated from Bermuda).

It was, alas, on the President , which was spotted by the British frigate Endymion and engaged in an ultimately futile battle off the coast of Long Island, that Richard Dale suffered his fatal injuries, including the loss of his right leg.

Only 20 at the time, the junior officer died on February 22 in St. George's -- despite the best efforts of the townspeople to save a young man of such "exemplary behaviour and patience'' -- after the Endymion limped back to Bermuda with Dale, defeated US Commodore Stephen Decatur and other prisoners of war onboard.

According to local historian Lt. Col. Brendan Hollis, a former commanding officer of the Bermuda Regiment who has written extensively on the unfortunate midshipman, "the tragedy of the waste of such a young life so needlessly was not lost on the citizenry of (St. George). They were friends of both the British and Americans, which put them in a perhaps unique position to observe the futility of `this unnatural war,' as The Royal Gazette so eloquently described it (at the time).'' Although it was the kindness of the people of the old town towards the midshipman that resulted in the modern-day ceremony -- they also saw that the young sailor was given a fitting burial in his current resting place -- it was an American, the late US Base commander Scarrett Adams, who established the custom of giving a regular nod to Dale by doing so with a Marine Colour Guard in the 1950s.

Yesterday's ceremony was considerably less formal than some of its predecessors, though it did consist of the two highest-ranking representatives in Bermuda of the one-time enemy states, Governor Lord Waddington and US Consul General Mr. Bob Farmer, attending a special sermon in St. Peter's by the Rev. Hollis.

Governor Lord Waddington also read a lesson during the service, as did Lt.

Col. Hollis.

The ceremony then moved out of doors, where a wreath was placed on Dale's grave and a Bermuda Regiment firing party gave him a salute.

"The US Memorial Day,'' Rev. Hollis said of his choice for the date of the ceremony, "has little meaning to us as Bermudians. I just picked it because it was close to the US Base closing. Another year we'll do it closer to February, the month that he (Dale) actually died.'' In the meantime, the little church in the heart of St. George's will play host to another melancholy symbol of a bygone age.

Yesterday, the current commander of the US Base in Bermuda, Captain Tim Bryan, presented St. Peter's with one of the flags from the Naval Air Station in a departing gesture of thanks.

Like a number of other military ensigns, it will fly in the main section of the church.

MILITARY MAN -- Lt. Col. Brendan Hollis, who read a lesson during yesterday's Memorial Day service for 19th-century midshipman Richard Sutherland Dale, wrote of the sailor's death: "The tragedy of the waste of such a young life so needlessly was not lost on the people of (St. George's).''