He Is Not Missing, He Is Here*
Published by Rick on Friday, February 06, 2009.
*Field Marshal Lord Plumer at the unveiling of the Menin Gate Memorial to the Missing, 24th July 1927.
The Menin Gate Memorial is dedicated to the 54,896 British and Commonwealth soldiers of the Great War who were killed in the fierce battles around the Ypres Salient area who have no known grave. All of their names are incised into vast panels set into the wall of the Memorial.
Following the dedication of the Memorial in 1927, the citizens of Ypres wanted to express their gratitude towards those who had given their lives for Belgium’s freedom. As such, every evening at 8pm buglers from the local fire brigade close the road which passes under the Memorial and play the Last Post. Except for the occupation by the Germans during the Second World War (when the daily ceremony was conducted at Brookwood Military Cemetery in Surrey) this ceremony has been carried on uninterrupted since.
On the very evening that Polish forces liberated Ypres in the Second World War, the ceremony was resumed at the Menin Gate despite the fact that heavy fighting was still taking place in other parts of the town.
The ceremony continues every night to this day.
The Menin Gate Memorial is dedicated to the 54,896 British and Commonwealth soldiers of the Great War who were killed in the fierce battles around the Ypres Salient area who have no known grave. All of their names are incised into vast panels set into the wall of the Memorial.
Following the dedication of the Memorial in 1927, the citizens of Ypres wanted to express their gratitude towards those who had given their lives for Belgium’s freedom. As such, every evening at 8pm buglers from the local fire brigade close the road which passes under the Memorial and play the Last Post. Except for the occupation by the Germans during the Second World War (when the daily ceremony was conducted at Brookwood Military Cemetery in Surrey) this ceremony has been carried on uninterrupted since.
On the very evening that Polish forces liberated Ypres in the Second World War, the ceremony was resumed at the Menin Gate despite the fact that heavy fighting was still taking place in other parts of the town.
The ceremony continues every night to this day.
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