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Almost every visitor to Ieper will wish if at all possible to attend the simple but moving tribute to those who fell in the battles for Wipers, here at the Menin Gate - just a few minutes walk from the main square.
This impressive archway forms the British memorial to the Missing, and was inaugurated on 24 July 1927 in the presence of King Albert of Belgium. On its walls are the names of those 54,896 who died between 1914 and 15 August 1917, and have no known grave.
Following the inaugural ceremony the last post was played by the Somerset Light Infantry, followed by a lament from the pipes of the Scots Guards. It was this simple ceremony that prompted the local Superintendent from the Ieper police Force: Supt. Vandenbraamussche, to consider the idea of repeating the ceremony. |
Here are the
thousands of names of people from all over the world who fought and died in
some of the bloodiest fighting of the war: British, Australians, Canadians,
Indians, Gurkhas; the list goes on.| Working with the local Fire
Brigade the ceremony was repeated nightly through the summer of 1928.
". . . to ensure the sounding of the Last Post each evening for all time at the British memorial at the Menin Gate in honour of the soldiers of the British Empire who fell at Ypres or in the neighbourhood during the war of 1914 - 1918 and in addition to do everything . . . that could increase the significance of this tribute to the Armies of the British Empire ." And so the tradition was born. With the exception of the period under which Ieper was occupied during the Second World War, the Last Post has been played every night since 11 November 1929. The day the Germans left (6 September 1944) the ceremony was enacted that night.
Most nights will find only a pair of buglers, but for special days you will see a full compliment of buglers in their full dress uniforms. Go along; you wont be alone, but amongst a group of young and old, children of veterans, school parties, a surprisingly broad mixture. Sons wearing father's or even grandfather's berets and medals, perhaps in their own regimental blazers, stand in tribute alongside children too young to take in the full horror of the events behind the ceremony
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Every evening at
2000 hours buglers from the local Fire Brigade come down to the gate; the
traffic is stopped; and the Last Post played. For a few minutes, the notes ring
around the walls, and the onlooker can contemplate the thousands of names
inscribed all around them. If you fail to be moved, I can only suggest that you
are as cold as the stone you are standing beneath.