ENGLISH CHURCH AT YPRES.
It will be remembered that Field-Marshal Earl Ypres on the 4th August,
the 10th anniversary of Great Britain coming in to the Great War, made a stirring
appeal, in his speech to the League at Ypres, for an English Church to be built
there.
This most valuable suggestion was followed up at opee and strongly
commended by the Archbishop of Canterbury and other representatives of the
Church of England and the Army, in a letter to the Press of the 7th August.
To many people, we believe, it was startling to learn from Lord Ypres
that nowhere in the whole battlefield area has the Church of England any
place of worship of a permanent character." It seems hardly credible that our
country should not have built one Church to the memory of those who lie there
at rest.
Lord Ypres was referring of course to the large number of pilgrims who
go all the year round from our islands and Dominions to visit the graves of our
armies in Flanders, and have no place, as he expressed it, into which they can
come for prayer and remembrance of their dead, and there in peace and quiet
feel that appeal to Service and Sacrifice of which we are ever conscious."
Apart from those to whom Lord Ypres referred, we must remember that
there are now six hundred men employed by the Imperial War Graves Commission
in No. 1 Area (Ypres Salient) to tend these Cemeteries, and 200 of these men live
near Ypres.
Our idea is to build first the Chancel end of the Church, and then extend it
if necessary to hold about two hundred people. The building might be plain to
begin with, and be later adorned with Regimental and other memorials as time
goes on.
We have been deputed to make the appeal for funds to carry out this
absolutely necessary work, and it is with the utmost confidence that we do make
this appeal for an English Church, which we owe to the Memory of Service and
Sacrifice.
Cheques can be made payable either to Bishop Bury, c/o the Rev. B.
Staunton Batty, Commissary, Christ Church Vicarage, Down Street, London,
W.i or to Field-Marshal Lord Plumer, through Lieut.-Colonel Poole, 36, Eaton
Place, London, S.W.i, and should be crossed Lloyds Bank (6, Pall Mall, S.W.i)
or can be paid direct to the Bank, for the Ypres Memorial Church Fund.
We are, yours truly,
HERBERT BURY, North and Central Europe.
PLUMER, F.M.
Published by The Ypres League, 36 Eaten Place, Eaton Square, S.W. 1, and Printed for the Publishers by
j. Alexander Co., 22, Northumberland Avenue, London, W.C.2.
