On November 11th each year, large crowds gather under the Menin Gate in Ypres to hear local buglers play the Last Post, and as part of Saugeen Shores Mayor Luke Charbonneau’s trip to sign a Sister-city agreement with Zonnebeke, along with Southampton Legion members John Willetts and Paul Johnston, the Menin Gate was on the itinerary.
Photos submitted
Built as a monument to the missing soldiers of the First World War, it serves as a memorial to missing soldiers and was unveiled almost one hundred years ago in the summer of 1927.
For larger view, click on image
Photos by Eric Compernolle B.E.M. (Belgium)
The Last Post is sounded every evening at the Menin Gate in Honour of the Allied Soldiers who died defending Belgium in the Great War, 1914-18. Since then, buglers from the Ypres fire brigade have played every night at 8:00 p.m. since 1928, apart from the years when the country was under Nazi occupation. The Last Post ceremony has now been held more than 30,000 times.
The memorial was designed by renowned British architect Sir Reginald Blomfield. His design was inspired by the 17th-century Porte de la Citadelle in Nancy, France, creating the impressive triumphal arch visitors see today in Ypres, Belgium.
Menin Gate commemorates more than 54,000 British and Commonwealth soldiers who died in the Ypres Salient before 15th August 1917 and whose bodies were never identified or recovered. During construction it became clear there was not enough space to include every missing soldier’s name and, as a result, those who died after the cut-off date are commemorated instead at the memorial in Tyne Cot Cemetery, where a further 35,000 names are recorded.
For larger view, click on imag
