The Last Post

Buglers from the city play the Last Post every evening at 8 pm. In the background you can see some of the names of these with no known grave.

Today was mostly spent in and around Ypres, a city in Belgium that had the misfortune to be almost totally destroyed by the shelling during WWII. The Belgium people in this town have four languages on everything official and most menus; Dutch, French, German and English.

This city is special. It was fought over viciously and tenaciously in WWI. After the war the people of the city decided that something had to be done to remember. They had just witnessed one of the most horrific events of the 20th century.

This moat and wall are the reason for the gate.

The Menin Gate Memorial, Ypres, Belgium

The Menin Gate memorial contains the names of 54,896 officers and men from all the overseas British and Commonwealth forces who fell in the Ypres Salient before 16th August 1917.

Names are engraved in Portland stone panels fixed to the inner walls of the Hall, to the sides of the staircases and inside the loggias on the north and south sides of the building.

This memorial does not include the names of the missing of New Zealand and Newfoundland forces, who are named on separate memorials.
Why here?

From October 1914 British and Commonwealth troops began to march east through the Meenenpoorte gateway from the city of Ypres onto the Menin Road and into the battlefields of the Ypres Salient.

For the next four years of the Great War soldiers from practically every British and Commonwealth regiment passed through this gateway.

Many thousands of soldiers in the British Army lost their lives fighting in the Ypres Salient. The remains of over 90,000 of them have never been found or identified. They are, therefore, buried somewhere in the Ypres Salient with no known grave.

The site of the The Menin Gate, was considered to be a fitting location to place a memorial to the missing British and Commonwealth soldiers.

Members of the Queens Own Rifles stand front and centre during the service.

On the left is Shawn , on his way to Afghanistan and Adam on the Right , a 2 tour vet. In the centre is QOR Sargent Major.

The group we are travelling with is laying 12 wreaths during this trip. We have 2 current members of the Queens Own rifles with us who served in Afghanistan and several from their Legion. So one of their goals was to lay wreaths during the Last Post ceremony at the gate. This service is conducted rain or shine, summer and winter. Tonight they laid those wreaths. It was very moving.

Time for happier memories. This young lady couldn't wait to have her picture taken with Shaun and Adam. In the background some of the many wreaths that had been laid.