112
THE YPRES TIMES
SIXTEEN years ago we were keen to see Flanders. Four and a half years later
many of us said Flanders I never want to see it again." Yet twelve
years after the close of hostilities, the desire to revisit becomes too strong to
be resisted. Those friendships, many to be tragically broken others, thanks to
Providence, to continue after the war, were the nucleus of organizations such as the
British Legion and the Ypres League, which to-day serve to perpetuate the friendships
of the dark years. So, on August 9th, 1930, a party of forty-seven members of the
Whaley Branch British Legion, some also members of the Ypres League, made a tour
of the old British front. Some to see the billets
and dug-outs, others to realize a long cherished
ambition to visit the last resting-places of those who
did not return.
At London we were met by our Branch Chaplain
and Capt. G. E. de Trafford (Secretary of the Ypres
League), who wished us bon voyage." After a
comfortable crossing from Tilbury, we boarded the
train at Dunkerque. The French countryside became
familiar at Cassel where early in 1915 the 46th
Division (of which the i/6th Sherwood Foresters
formed part) detrained for their first taste of the
"great adventure." Inpassing, it maybe mentioned
that the 46th was the first Territorial Division to
go into action, a distinction of which the members
were not a little proud. We eventually arrived at
Ypres at 9.8 a.m., and were met by Mr. C. J.
Parminter (the Ypres League representative), our
good companion for the tour. Our hotels were
Skindles and Splendid and Britannique.
At 11.30 a.m., headed by the Legion Standard,
we made our way to the Ypres Town Memorial,
where a cross of Legion poppies was placed by Mr.
T. Marsland at the feet of the Belgian Lion. A
service at the Menin Gate followed, conducted by the
Rev. G. R. Milner, M.A., Chaplain of the Ypres
British Church of St. George. He gave a short, but a very appropriate address.
That grand memorial, bearing the names of 55,000 men to whom the fortunes of war
denied them a known place of burial, brought home the simple fact that the great
building is not a monument to gloat over a victory, but rather to show that our absent
comrades are still remembered. At the conclusion of a most impressive service another
cross of poppies was laid by Mrs. Armitage, and a collection realized the sum of
£1 7s. and 44 francs 50 centimes, which was handed over to the British Church at
Ypres. The rest of the day was spent independently, and at 9 p.m. the party assembled
at the Menin Gate for The Last Post," which was sounded on the silver bugles
presented to the town by the British Legion. Mr. Wood, the Standard-bearer, dipped
the Standard during the ceremony as regimentally as a Guardsman, until the echo had
died away.
A charabanc trip of the Ypres Salient was arranged for the following day via
Essex Farm, crossing the canal to Pilckem Ridge, Langemarck, Vancouver Cross Roads,
Winnipeg, Kansas Cross Roads, Gravenstafel, and Tyne Cotthe largest cemetery
MR. MARSLAND PLACING A
CROSS OF POPPIES ON THE
YPRES TOWN MEMORIAL.
