Ypres British Church.
I7°
THE YPRES TIMES
THE dedication of the Memorial Church of St. George, on Sunday, March
24th, marks the beginning of another era in the history of Ypres.
Those who were privileged to attend the ceremony will ever be grateful
that they were present at a service which is unique in the history of the Christian
Church. Can anyone recall another instance when the consecration Bishop was
assisted by a Presbyterian and a Free Churchman? But to appreciate the full
significance of the ceremony, one needs to go back over the years to 1914. Let
us do that
One of the chaplains, assisting in the ceremony, arrived in Ypres on the
Friday and spent the whole of Saturday in a tour of the Salient.
He had been there during those dark years when the face of the countryside
was distorted with agony; and our armies moved to and fro in the Valley of the
Shadow.
Many of our readers will understand the impulse that compelled him to visit
again the places which will always recall the names and faces of old comrades who,
like their Saviour, died that others might live.
As we follow him out of the city along the road to Boesinghe, up to Lange-
marsh, across to Poelcapelle and Passchendaele, then down Zonnebeke and
Hooge right on to the Wytschaete Ridge returning again to the city via Kemmel,
La Clytte and Dickebusch, we find a tide of memories sweeping into our minds.
We recall those anxious days in 1914 when, by reason of its overwhelming
strength, the German Army came so near to breaking through and reaching the
Channel ports. We remember that month in 1915 when we first faced the horror
of poison gas. No troops have ever given a finer instance of heroic courage than
our Canadian army displayed at that time.
Is there one of us who will ever forget the inconceivable horror of the rain,
the mud, and the air-raids of 1917?
Some of our London friends are never tired of describing the horror of the
air-raids. Nor would we dream of suggesting that the picture is highly coloured.
They do not realize that from June, 1917, to March, 19x8, we were bombed day
and night up in the Salientto say nothing of the mud, the shells, the rats and
the gas.
Yet no German soldier ever set foot in Ypres except as a prisoner. Britain
had said, "We will keep the German Army out of the city." But the seventy
cemeteries in the Salient, with their thousands of British graves; bear silent witness
to the cost of victory.
Yet no one could visit these Silent Cities without experiencing a thrill at
the thought of the courage to which they bear silent testimony. In and around
Ypres here is quite a colony of British residents who are employed mainly in
tending the graves of the fallen. In this task they have displayed and are
displaying the most outstanding skill and devotion.
In making the original appeal for a church to be built in Ypres, the late Field-
Marshal the Earl of Ypres had the spiritual need of these men in his mind; as
well as the thought of the many pilgrims who would welcome a Place for
Prayer."
Shortly after making his appeal, Earl Ypres passed away; but Field-Marshal
Lord Plumer, General Sir W. Pulteney and the Bishop of Northern Europe took
up the scheme.