Stanley Military Cemetery Stanley Military Cemetery is located near St . Stephen ' s Beach in Stanley , Hong Kong . Along with the larger Hong Kong ( Happy Valley ) Cemetery , it is one of two military cemeteries of the early colonial era , used for the burials of the members of the garrison and their families between 1841 and 1866 . There were no further burials here until the second world war . The cemetery is roughly triangular in shape and stands on ground rising sharply from the road side . It is approached by a flight of steps leading up to the Cross of Sacrifice with steep grassy slopes on either side . The Cemetery and Hong Kong Defence . On 8 December 1941 , Japan launched the invasion on Hong Kong , which resulted in the British surrendering on Christmas Day of that year . Stanley Village was one of the last battlefields of the defence . The Royal Rifles of Canada , many elements of the Hong Kong Volunteer Defence Corps , and sections from the Middlesex were stationed there . Fighting occurred in the cemetery itself on the afternoon of Christmas Day , when D Company Royal Rifles of Canada tried to force the advancing Japanese from Bungalow C . At the British surrender , the majority of the western civilians in Hong Kong were confined at Stanley Internment Camp , which included the grounds of St Stephen ' s College and the warders accommodation of the prison ( which is now Stanley Prison of Hong Kong ) ; while the military personnel were sent to either North Point Camp , Shum Shui Po POW camp , Ma Tau Chung camp and Argyle Street Camp . Due to the lack of food and medical drugs in the camp , many people died at Stanley and were buried here at the time . Those " raw graves " are still preserved in their original shape . Following the Japanese surrender , many other wartime fatalities from this part of Hong Kong were also re - interred in the cemetery . Burials in the 20th century . There are 598 WWII burials ( including non - British Allied soldiers and 2 from Hong Kong Police Force ) in the cemetery . Of those burials , 175 of them are unidentified and 96 are civilian internees ( including 4 children ) . Eric Moreton , a Methodist missionary who died of wounds ( sustained while driving an ambulance in Wanchai during the fighting ) at the Royal Naval Hospital on 26 December 1941 is also buried in the cemetery . War dead from the period 19 – 26 December 1941 of the defence were buried at Spot 5 – 6 of the cemetery . Among them were a few Canadians who were sent to Hong Kong three weeks prior the invasion ( the majority of the many Canadians who lost their lives at the time are interred at Sai Wan ) . Another notable group of personnel that were buried or commemorated there are those served in the British Army Aid Group , which helped POWs in Hong Kong or other Japanese occupied zones to escape to China , and arranged military needs for resistance in those zones . Among them was Captain M . A . Ansari , who was originally in the 5 / 7th Rajput Regiment but from Ma Tau Chung POW Camp co - ordinated with the British Army Aid Group after the surrender . He was also a posthumous recipient of the George Cross . There are some burials after the war , arranged at Spot 8 . On the other hand , there are 3 commemorations of casualties ( one from Hong Kong Volunteer Defence Corps and two from Chinese Labour Corps ) of the First World War , buried elsewhere in the territory and whose graves are now lost . The larger group of World War II military burial is at Sai Wan War Cemetery in Chai Wan . External links .