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

HISTORISCHE KRANTEN

The Ypres Times (1921-1936) | 1926 | | pagina 10