Menin Gate Last Post

[Mark Hone]

I have just come back from Ieper where once again I attended Menin Gate on several consecutive days. Each one was a 'Special' with exhortation, wreath-laying, music etc, even where there was no mention of it on the Last Post Committee calendar. Talking to Jacky confirmed that 'specials' are now very much the rule rather than the exception throughout the year. Inevitably one has mixed feelings about this but like all the changes in the area (Tyne Cot, Talbot House etc) there are good and bad features. Even the industrial build up of north Ieper gave us Yorkshire Trench and the Diggers' finds. I was particularly delighted to meet a party from the Bermuda Cadet Corps who paraded on one of the days. Their battlefields tour had laid emphasis on researching and visiting the graves of Bermudans who died on the Western Front. Well done to them.

[Greenwoodman]

I just wondered if you had taken a contact address with the Bermudans, Mark. I have one man on the Sandbach Memorials who was born there.

[Michael]

Wouldn't it be nice to be involved in one of the 'specials' and lay a forum wreath.

I wonder how many names on that gate we are collectively researching / remembering !

Michael

[ianw]

Yes a "Pals Special" is rather a nice idea.

I was privileged to read the Exhortation a couple of years ago and I will remember it all my life. Given that my Great Uncle's name is on the Gate, it was very emotional.

I think the ceremony lends itself to a bit of sensitive innovation. The basics of it are so strong and established that the special wreath layings, songs , poems etc can never marginalise the main event. Involving the young in the ceremony is absolutely marvellous and is the essence of remembrance.

[Mark Hone]

I am planning to send them a letter of thanks and a photo of one of our school wreath-layings. Unfortunately I didn't think to ask them at the time but from the net I have discovered that their address is:

Bermuda Cadet Corps Office,

Warwick Camp,

Warwick, Bermuda.

Tel: 441-238-8206

[paul guthrie]

I recited the Exhortation in April during our US Branch WFA tour of the Ieper area. It was a great privilige. I was the first American to do so as far as I know. The names of US soldiers who had died that day, two I think, in 1918 were read. The branch gave Last Post Committe E500 but they did not know we would beforehand. Thanks Jacky.

[Jacky Platteeuw]

Paul,

Let me take this opportunity to thank again the USA Branch of WFa for their very generous contribution.

Now folks is that not a good example to follow ? :-). You know that it is going to be very well used.

An operation 'Last Post' from Baker Pals on the way ?.

Jacky

[Mark Hone]

Paul-May I echo the thanks for your most generous gift to the Last Post Association. For the record my American friend Major Rob Price of the US Army Medical Corps (who came on two of our school battlefield tours when stationed at Ramstein) read the Exhortation during our participation in the ceremony in October 1999. Are there any earlier Stateside exhorters?

[Cynthia]

I did not read the Exhortation (ianw did it that evening) but I did lay the wreath in March 2002. A great privilege and one I will never forget.

Thank you, Jacky.

Cynthia (from Ohio, USA)