THE "GOLDFISH" CHATEAU.
HOUSE OF HISTORIC MEMORIES FOR SALE.
The Ypres Times. 35
Every British soldier who fought in the Ypres Salient has vivid memories of the
GoldfishChateau on the Vlamertinghe road. During four long years it was to
thousands a daily landmark on their journey to and from the trenches and to-day there
centre around it more than 600 British cemeteries, containing the graves of 250,000 British
soldiers. The chateau is now for sale, and it is hoped that it may be permanently acquired
by this country, with whose military history it is so closely interwoven. The Goldfish
Chateauor, to give its correct name, the Chateau des Rosiersis essentially a modern
building. It fell into the hands of the enemy in the early part of the War, and, for three
days, General von Bissing made it his headquarters. German prisoners stated that he
took a great fancy to the house, and that he intended to lay claim to it as his personal
The Goldfish Chateau.
prix de guerre had Germany won the War. But von Bissing was driven out by the
British, never to return, and, during the first Battle of Ypres the chateau was the head
quarters of General French. In 1915 it became the Canadian headquarters, and, subse
quently divisional headquarters. The network of telephone wires, still to be seen in the
basement, bears eloquent testimony to the strategic importance that the military authorities
attached to the building. Within its walls the momentous decision was arrived at between
General French and Marshal Foch (then General Commanding the Northern French Army)
to hold Ypres at all costs, to the last man and the last tin of bully beef." Miraculously
enough, the chateau escaped injury during the War, although every other building in the
vicinity was destroyed beyond recognition, and not one of the fine avenue of trees on the
Ypres-Vlamertinghe road was left standing. Five years ago, however, an adjacent
munition dump accidentally exploded, and the house suffered considerable damage.
By kind. permission of "The News of the World."
