2018 Battlefield Tour post 29
2018 France/ Belgium Trip Post No. 29
On our last night, we visited the Menin Gate Memorial to the Missing in Ypres for the Last Post ceremony performed by buglers of the Ypres Fire Dept. We rounded off our trip by laying a poppy wreath on behalf of the Regiment.
Gaz Jones proudly laid the wreath with me and Phil Burgess acting as escorts. Attached to the wreath was a special dedication in memory of WO2 Alan (Cal) Jones, A Sqn DLOY (1949-2018)....RIP. Just before the minute's silence, I had the honour of reading the exhortation out under the Menin Gate arch.
The ceremony has been performed continuously at 8 pm since 1928, during WW2 the ceremony was transferred to London.
The Menin Gate arch contains 54,616 names of soldiers who died in Flanders before 16 Aug 1917 and have no known grave. After this date names were added to the names of the missing at Tyne Cot Cemetery.
