The Ypres League PilgrimageAugust
the 4th, 1924.
IMES
THE JOURNAL OF THE YPRES LEAGUE.
Vol. 2. No. 4.
Published Quarterly.
October, 1924.
Weassembled, some seventy strong, at Victoria Station at 7.30 a.m. on Saturday,
August the 2nd. It was raining hard as we steamed out of the station, but we had a
pleasant journey to Dover, and after a smooth passage to Ostend we passed safely through
the Customs and made our way to the town station, whence a very slow train bore us
haltingly through re-built Belgium
Our main impressions were
(a) How wonderfully the villages and scattered farmhouses, mostly of red
brick, had been re-built.
bThe intensive cultivation of the land.
(c) The busy employment and hard work of the population.
(d) How few evidences of the War remained visible.
We arrived at Ypres at about 6 p.m. and were met at the station by Captain Parminter,
after which we sauntered through the town to our hotels, the Splendid and the Britannique,
where good cheer awaited us.
Sunday, August the 3rd, was a free day, which was spent in small parties visiting the
beautifully-kept British cemeteries and the various battlefields, where old memories were
keenly revived.
Monday, August the 4th, brought the great daythe tenth anniversary of Britain's
entry into the War, which was to be specially marked by the laying of an Ypres League
cornflower memorial wreath on the ruins of the Cloth Hall by the president, the Earl of
Ypres. Lord Ypres, General Sir W. P. Pulteney (chairman of the executive committee),
and the Rev. W. Kent, of Lille, were met by Captain Alliston at the Lille Gate at 10.55 a-m-
and escorted to the English Club, which Lord Ypres declared open in a stirring speech, to
which the president of the club, Mr. A. B. Melles, made a suitable reply. The civic
authorities, together with Colonel Goodland, Deputy Controller of the Imperial War
Graves Commission, were present. A move was then made to the Ypres League head
quarters (Rue Surmont de Volsberghe, No. 19), which was also officially declared open by
Lord Ypres. The rest room, situated on the ground floor, is nicely furnished and
decorated and should prove a comfortable and convenient resting-place for our members,
At the station square Lord Ypres was received by General Préaux, representing the
King of the Belgians, and the Belgian Army. The members of the League were drawn up
under Captain J. Wilkinson, honorary secretary of the Sheffield branch, and, together with
the town band and a guard of honour with fixed bayonets, were inspected by Lord Ypres,
