PPCLI
Frezenberg Memorial
Location
The monument to the stand by the PPCLI is situated on the ground where they fought on the Frezenberg Ridge.
Coming from Ieper take the main road towards Bellewaarde and Menen (N8). Just after the Hooge Museum and Bellewaarde attraction park you will come to what was known as Clapham Junction with two memorials. On the right is that to the 18th Division and opposite that to the Gloucestershire Regiment.
Look to your left and you will see a CWGC panel sign directing you left towards the PPCLI Monument. You then turn left again into Frezenbergstraat.
Continue straight on into the village of Westhoek. Here you will turn left into a narrow road aptly named: Princess Patriciastraat.
The PPCLI Bench
Taking care along this windy road you will come to the monument on your left. It is a round seat so take care you do not drive past it.
If on leaving you continue straight on you will eventually come out alongside RE Grave Cemetery and the Ieper Zonnebeke Road (N37).
R E Grave
History
The Regiment was born in Ottawa in August 1914 as a result of the offer of Captain Andrew Hamilton Gault to provide Cdn$100,000 to finance and equip a Battalion for overseas service.
Authority was formally granted on the 10th August by the Canadian Government and on the next day mobilisation began. Eight days later, it was completed, as old soldiers flocked from every part of Canada. Out of 1,098 all ranks accepted into the new Regiment, 1,049 had seen previous service in South Africa or in the regular forces of the British Empire. In addition to personnel from the Royal Navy and Marines, almost every unit in the British Army had its representation.
50th Anniversary plaque
Lt Colonel Francis Farquhar DSO, of the Coldstream Guards was selected to command the new battalion and it was he who suggested that the Regiment bear the name of the Governor General's youngest daughter, HRH Princess Patricia of Connaught. The princess consented and embroidered a flag for the regiment to carry. The Light Infantry suffix came about because Captain Gault, a veteran of the South African War, liked the Irregular feel it gave the regiment.
Princess Patriciastraat
The princess's flag was taken into battle and following the events here at Frezenberg became the Regimental Colour. Frezenberg is its first battle honour. It was the only Colour taken into battle by the British forces.
Their memorial takes the form of a memorial seat of Belgium Blue Granite with bronze inscription panels fastened to its backrest.
Plaque to the 'Originals'
An inscription on the base of the memorial states:
Here 8th May 1915, the Originals of Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry commanded by their founder Major A Hamilton Gault held firm and counted not the cost.
That cost was almost 400 casualties - the battalion being reduced to just 4 officers and 150 men.
The memorial was unveiled in 1958 by Mrs Hamilton Gault the widow of the Battalion's founder.
The Battalion lost both Lt Colonel Farquhar and his successor, Lt Colonel Buller in the salient. They are buried side by side at Voormezeele Enclosure No 3.
Voormezeele Enclosure No 3
2nd Ypres 1915