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"What are you
guarding, Man-at-Arms? |
The Menin Gate Memorial, Ypres |
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In 1928, a year after the inauguration of the Menin Gate Memorial, a number of prominent citizens in Ypres decided that some way should be found to express the gratitude of the Belgian nation towards those who had died for its freedom and independence. The idea of the daily sounding of the Last Post - the traditional salute to the fallen warrior - was that of the Superintendent of the Ypres Police. The Menin Gate Memorial on the east side of Ypres was thought to be the most appropriate location for the ceremony. Originally this was the location of the old city gate leading to the Ypres Salient battlefields through which so many passed on their way to the front line. For a few moments the noise of traffic ceases and a stillness descends over the memorial. At exactly 20.00 hours up to six members of the regular buglers from the local volunteer Fire Brigade step into the roadway under the memorial arch. They play Last Post, followed by a short silence and then play Reveille. |
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SEE BELOW for the nightly 'Last Post' ceremony at Menin Gate. |
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<<< Part of the commemorative wall inside the Memorial showing some of the thousands of names engraved on the walls. A close up of the words of dedication >>> |
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Lord Plumer of Messines, at the unveiling of the Menin Gate, 1927 said. . . One of the most tragic features of the Great War was the number of casualties reported as 'missing, believed killed'. To their relatives there must have been added to their grief a tinge of bitterness and a feeling that everything possible had not been done to recover their loved ones' bodies and give them reverent burial ... when peace came, and the last ray of hope had been extinguished, the void seemed deeper and the outlook more forlorn. For those who had no grave to visit, no place where they could lay tokens of loving remembrance ... and it was resolved that here at Ypres, where so many of the missing are known to have fallen, there should be erected a memorial worthy of them which should give expression to the nation's gratitude for their sacrifice and their sympathy with those who mourned them. A memorial has been erected which, in its simple grandeur, fulfils this object, and now it can be said of each one in whose honour we are assembled here today: 'He is not missing; he is here!' |
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A view of a larger section of the marble slabs that carry the names of the Fallen |  |
The Menin Buglers |
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A close up of some of the names of the 42nd Bn AIF at Menin Gate showing how the names are engraved. | ||
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Another view of Menin Gate in daylight |
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| The layout of the Menin Gate Memorial Ypres (Ieper) showing the various national areas. |
| Blomfield's
memorial combines the architectural images of a classical victory arch
and a mausoleum and it contains, inside and out, huge panels into which
are carved the names of the 54,896 officers and men of the commonwealth
forces who died in the Ypres Salient area and who have no known graves.
This figure, however, does not represent all of the missing from this
area. It was found that the Menin Gate, immense though it is, was not
large enough to hold the names of all the missing.
The names recorded on the gate's panels are those of men who died in the area between the outbreak of the war in 1914 and 15th August, 1917. The names of a further 34,984 of the missing - those who died between 16th August, 1917 and the end of the war, are recorded on carved panels at Tyne Cot Cemetery, on the slopes just below Passchendaele. |
