WAR MEMORIAL OF THE ROYAL
REGIMENT OF ARTILLERY.
8
The Ypres Times.
By LIEUT.-GENERAL SIR HERBERT TJNIACKE, K.C.M.G., C.B.
We owe more tears to these dead men
Than time shall see us pay."
The War Memorial
In proud remembrance of the
FORTY-NINE THOUSAND AND SEVENTY-SIX
of all ranks of the
ROYAL REGIMENT OF ARTILLERY
who gave their lives
for King and Country
in the Great War
1914-1919
was unveiled at Hyde Park Comer, at 11.30 a.m. on Sunday, October 18th, 1925, by Field
Marshal H.R.H. The Duke of Connaught, K.G. who, as Prince Arthur, served in the
years 1868 and 1869 as a lieutenant in what is now the 62nd Field Battery Royal Artillery.
The Memorial is the tribute of those who are left of the Royal Regiment of Artillery
to the honoured memory of those good comrades of theirs, Regular, Special Reserve,
Territorial and New Army who, cherishing their brotherhood, glorying in their good
name, when the call came in the Great War, followed the path of duty and self-sacrifice
and laid down their lives in many strange landsfaithful unto death in the service of the
guns. The unveiling and dedication took place in the presence of a vast crowd according
to a Press accountNo London ceremony of recent years has been conceived with
such a wealth of pageantry, or been carried out with such impressive precision."
And what an assembly Children who had lost their fathersboys from the Duke
of York's School, and girls from the Soldiers' Daughters Home at Hampstead, and the
Victoria School at Wandsworth widows who had lost their husbands, and parents who
had lost their only son, andin many casesall their sons officers and men, serving and
ex-service, whosé comrades had fallen beside them the Home Secretary representing
the Cabinet the High Commissioners of the Great Dominions the Army Council in
a body headed by the Secretary of State for War the Military Attachés of the Foreign
Powers in their varied uniforms and distinguished officers of other arms whose
names are household words. And mingling with them were veterans of past wars, old
pensioners from Chelsea Hospital in their long scarlet coats Yeomen of the Guard and
Warders from the Tower in their picturesque old-world garb disabled men from the
Star and Garter and Roehampton in hospital blue a strong body of commissionaires
-all ex-artillerymen, come to pay a last tribute to their dead comrades. On the right
of the guard of honour stood a detachment of gentlemen cadets from Woolwich, future
officers of the Regiment, and on the left, a poignant sight, a party of war-blinded men
from St. Dunstan's who, they themselves having given much, had brought a wreath in
memory of their brother-gunners who had given their all.
Prior to the arrival of H.R.H. The Duke of Connaught the whole assemblage joined
in singing Kipling's Recessional," and as the words Lord God of Hosts be with us yet,
lest we forgetlest we forgetwere voiced by the bareheaded throng, a sense of the
solemnity of the occasion seemed to be impressed on all present.
H.R.H., on arrival, having inspected the guard of honour, proceeded to a dais and
made an address, the words of which were carried by a microphone to the far limits of
the great open space where Hyde Park Corner looks down to Victoria. He paid a warm