The Menin Gate and the Last Post

The Menin Gate in an impressive memorial to the soldiers who died in World War I in the Belgium town of Ypres (Iepers). In the course of the war, the Ypres Salient was the scene of terrible fighting and was nicknamed “Wipers” by the British infantry who fought there. Around 250,000 men from UK and the Commonwealth fell in the fighting in the vicinity of this old town. Of those men, around 100,000 have no acknowledged burial plot and close to half of those are commemorated on the Menin Gate. This memorial to the missing bears the names of 54,000 men from all around the earth.

Across the Western Front battlefields of Belgium and France, there are many memorials but the Menin Gate is compelling for more than just its over all size. The gate is located at the Eastern exit of the town and the road leads right to the old front line. The memorial was constructed by the British government and was unveiled in 1927. Its location seems best suited and lots of the soldiers whose names are commemorated on the Menin Gate, will have marched along this same road to the front line, never to come home.

The people of Ypres were all to mindful of the debt of appreciation they owed the fallen that they came up with an idea to honour them. From 1928, every night at 8pm, cars are stopped from passing under the Menin Gate and a short ceremony takes place. Buglers from the Last Post Association and district fire brigade gather to play the “Last Post”. The ceremony should not be seen as amusement, it is a solemn occasion and although the public are welcome to be present at the ceremony, they should remember the reasons that it happens.

The ceremony has taken place each and every night since 2nd July 1928, only disrupted during World War II as the town was occupied by Germany. For the duration of the occupation of Ypres, the ceremony occurred at Brookwood Military Cemetery in Surrey, Great Britain. The very day that Ypres was liberated from the Germans in World War II, was once again carried out at the Menin Gate.