Hamilton Road Cemetery is a combined municipal and military burial ground situated in the coastal town of Deal, Kent, in South East England. Opened in May 1856, it was created to provide a new burial ground for Deal at a time when its general population was expanding and when previous, often ad hoc facilities for dealing with deaths in the area no longer sufficed.

The cemetery's civilian burials are managed by Dover Council, and its military burials by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission. It contains a Cross of Sacrifice of some significance and the burials of military service personnel from Great Britain, Belgium, Canada, and, very unusually, Nazi Germany, many of whom took part in some of the most famous incidents in World War I and World War II, including: the Gallipoli Campaign, the Battle of the Somme, the 1918 Zeebrugge Raid, the Battle of Dunkirk, the Battle of the Denmark Strait and sinking of , the Battle of Britain, and the more modern tragedy of the Deal barracks bombing in September 1989.

It also contains 66 local civilian war dead from World War II killed by German bombing and shelling between 1940 and 1945, 127 military burials from World War I (including three unidentified Naval ratings), and 54 from World War II.

There is a small mortuary chapel associated with the cemetery, but no dedicated church as such.

1914–1920

Notable Army and Royal Marine interments from 1914–1920

The first military burials date from 1914, and the majority of the cemetery's military interments belong to the Great War rather than to World War II. There are also some Royal Marines Light Infantry burials dating to 1919 and 1920, additionally, and quite a number of graves of Canadian nationals. Notable graves include:

The graves of two of the Royal Marines killed in the 1918 Zeebrugge Raid on 23 April of that year: Private John Bostock, CH/19897, and Lieutenant William Edward Sillitoe. Both were from the Royal Marine Light Infantry 4th Battalion. The grave of Private Arthur Maltby, listed as service number 126276, The Royal Montreal Regiment. He died on 27 April 1918. His parents are listed as being Arthur and Elizabeth Maltby, of 256, Huron Street, Stratford, Ontario, Canada, though he is listed as being born in Nottingham, in England. He enlisted in Stratford, Ontario, Canada, on 9 September 1915, aged 20 years and nine months. The grave of Private William Hawley, from the 24th Battalion (Victoria Rifles), from the Canadian Expeditionary Force, regimental number 919811, who died aged 20 on 10 October 1918, just one month before the end of the Great War. Private Hawley was the son of Peter and Mary Hawley, of 114A, Forfar St, Montreal, Quebec he was also not born in Canada, but in County Kerry in Ireland. The grave of Royal Marines Major-general Sir David Mercer, KCB, and holder of the rank of Commandeur of the French Légion d'honneur. Twice mentioned in dispatches, he served in France, Flanders, and in the Gallipoli Campaign. He was associated with the Band of the Royal Marine Light Infantry (Chatham Division), who by his permission played in a World War I memorial concert at St Paul's Cathedral on 19 November 1918.

Notable naval interments 1914–1920

The grave of C. L. Boniface, Stoker 1st Class, Service Number K/5397/PO. The minesweeper he served on, HMS Niger was torpedoed and sunk off Deal on 11 November 1914, possibly by the German submarine U-12. Stoker Boniface was 23 years old at the time of his death, and was the son of George and Elizabeth Boniface of 1, Manor Cottages, Felpham, Bognor Regis. The grave of Victor Joseph Benoit, son of Joseph Benoit, of Cape St. George, Newfoundland, from the Dominion of Newfoundland, a Royal Naval Reserve Ordinary Seaman who served on the HM Armed Naval drifter Frons Olivae, which hit a Naval mine off Ramsgate on 12 October 1915 in an explosion which sunk the ship and killed most of the Anglo-Canadian crew, including Able Seaman George Files, Engineman Albert Brown, Seaman James Walker Hynes, Lieutenant Thomas Evan Rogers, and coal trimmer Francis (Frank) Robert Newark. Other casualties included Seaman George H. Le Drew from the Newfoundland Royal Naval Reserve, Engineman Charles Leggett from the Royal Naval Reserve, the Skipper; George S. Meale, Seaman Stephen Sparkes from the Newfoundland Royal Naval Reserve, and Deck Hand William M. Wooldridge, also from the Newfoundland Royal Naval Reserve. The grave of Ordinary Seaman Joseph Arsenault, Royal Naval Canadian Volunteer Reserve, Regimental Number VR/3512, from the shore base of HMS Pembroke, who died on 16 June 1917 of unknown causes.

1921–1939: The Deal Cross of Sacrifice

In November 1925, a war memorial called The Deal Cross of Sacrifice was unveiled by Field Marshal Edmund Allenby, 1st Viscount Allenby, one of the Great War's most prestigious and controversial British commanders, who was also Captain of Deal Castle at that time.

The ceremony was very well-attended, and included two lieutenant generals, a colonel who was also the holder of the Victoria Cross, a major, Deal's mayor, the town serjeant bearing the ceremonial mace, councillors, aldermen, priests from three different churches and denominations, Walmer's Council, representatives from the International Committee of the Red Cross, St. John Ambulance, the British Legion, a large number of war veterans from the Volunteers Old Comrades' Association, and a Guard of Honour from the Royal Marines, who also provided a party of buglers.

The ceremony, as reported in the Saturday 14 November 1925 edition of The Deal, Walmer, and Sandwich Mercury newspaper, included the full text of his speech, reproduced here below:

[Allenby was quoting Robert Browning's poem "Prospice", here...]

1940–1945

Notable naval interments from WW2 and the Battle of Dunkirk (1940)

There had been no military burials for a generation by the outbreak of World War II, and the need to bury new casualties from the British Expeditionary Force and from action in the English Channel meant the establishment of a new dedicated section in the far northern corner of the cemetery grounds. Notable burials include:

Chief Petty Officer William Eden, service number P/K 5943, from the naval shore base of HMS Fervent (which encompassed part of Ramsgate Harbour), who died on 27 September 1939, age and cause of death unknown. Stoker 1st Class William Caisley from the W-class destroyer HMS Wessex. His ship had left Dover on 24 May 1940 with three other warships, the V-class HMS Vimiera, the W-class HMS Wolfhound and the Polish Navy Wicher-class destroyer ORP Burza. The ships had orders to attack German troop formations heading towards Calais, but the Wessex was in her turn attacked by Stuka dive bombers, resulting in the ship sinking and survivors being rescued by the Vimiera, which was in turn heavily damaged and forced to withdraw. Stoker Caisley died the next day, presumably of wounds. Able Seaman William Edward Gibbs, who served on board the Royal Navy W-class destroyer HMS Windsor. His ship was part of the 9th Destroyer Flotilla based at Dover, and was taking part in the developing Dunkirk evacuation, the Windsor undertaking patrol and escort duties for some of the ships evacuating allied soldiers from the beaches. On 28 May 1940, his ship came under a coordinated and sustained aerial attack which resulted in the death of himself and 29 of his crew-mates. Despite this, the Windsor, still suffering significant battle damage, returned to Dunkirk and had rescued nearly four thousand troops from the beaches by the culmination of Operation Dynamo. Leading Seaman Stanley George Bone, from the G-class destroyer HMS Greyhound, who died on 31 May 1940. His ship was carrying over 500 troops from the beaches of Dunkirk when it was attacked, resulting in several deaths, his included. The destroyer was badly damaged and had to be taken in tow by the Polish Grom-class destroyer ORP Błyskawica and tugs, and returned to England.

Notable Allied interments from the Battle of Britain (1940)

On 29 October 1940, the Royal Marines Barracks in Deal was attacked from the air.

Historian David Collyer claims that the bombers were actually not from the Luftwaffe;

This would indicate that the attackers were from the Italian Corpo Aereo Italiano equipped with Fiat BR.20 bombers: 29 October 1940 saw a major operation by the Italian Air Corps against Ramsgate, some eleven miles from Deal, and the bombers, painted a green and bright blue and flying in perfect wingtip formation, were accompanied by a Messerschmitt Bf 109 fighter escort.

Six of the eight casualties were buried side by side, symbolically, in the Hamilton Road Cemetery, in the new Plot C area of the cemetery which already had a number of recent interments by the end of 1940. The casualties were:

Second Lieutenant Robert Prynne Nelson, B.A. (Cambridge), aged 28, from the Royal Marines Siege Regiment. He was the son of Robert and Mary Susanna Nelson, of Harpenden, Hertfordshire. Nelson had been a first-class cricketer who played for Middlesex and Northamptonshire in the seasons 1931 to 1939.Robert Nelson at CricketArchive He is buried in Plot C. Block 8. Grave 4750. His gravestone bears the inscription:Lieutenant Nelson was remembered fondly: Marine George Frederick Lewis, a veteran soldier of World War I, aged 48, service number CH/16313. No family details are given. He is buried in Plot C. Block 8. Grave 4751. Marine David Girling, aged 48, service number PLY/15078, Son of David and Caroline Girling; husband of Ethel Alice Girling, of Ewhurst, Surrey. He is buried in Plot C. Block 8. Grave 4752. Marine Frederick Henry Drake, aged 50, service number CH/16617, son of Son of Thomas and Elizabeth Drake; husband of Christina Ann Drake, of Walmer, Deal. He is buried in Plot C. Block 8. Grave 4753. His gravestone bears an inscription: Bugler Henry James Clemenson, aged 26, service number PO/X 625, son of George Charles and Caroline Margaret Clemenson, of Gosport, Hampshire. He is buried in Plot C. Block 8. Grave 4754. Private Frederick John Clifford Drewery, age unknown, service number 4038695, from the King's Shropshire Light Infantry (7th Battalion). No family details are given. He is buried in Plot C. Block 8. Grave 4755.

It is to be noticed that Private Drewery was a long way from his unit when he died and there is currently no information on why he was at the Barracks that day. However, his burial plot position indicated that he was a probably a casualty of the events that day.

Right next to these casualties of an Italian air raid, three German Luftwaffe air crew from a Dornier bomber are interred.

Notable Axis interments from the Battle of Britain (1940)

In Plot C, Block 8 are the graves of three of a four-man Luftwaffe bomber crew whose aircraft, a Dornier Do 17, 3495 U5+DM from Kampfgeschwader 4, a type of plane sometimes referred to as the Fliegender Bleistift (German: "flying pencil"), had crashed into the sea at 20:40 hours on 9 November 1940, of unknown causes, off the coast of Kingsdown, Kent. Historian David Collyer states that their bodies were washed up on the beach nearby, although the circumstances of their burial indicate that only body parts were found for two of the crew, a third was found more or less intact, and the fourth's remains were, he claims, never recovered.

The crew were as follows:

a) Unteroffizier Leopold Kaluza, aged 23, from Klausberg (originally in Austria, now in Italy, in the South Tyrol area). (Service Number 58213/87)

b) Heinz Fischer, aged 25, from Dresden (Service Number 58213/42, no rank information available)

c) Unteroffizier Herbert Reinsch, aged 20, also from Dresden (Service Number 58213/28).