THE YPRES TIMES
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The Memorial as it stands to-day, is in every way worthy of the unique associations
it seeks to perpetuate and the high purpose it stands to fulfil. For not only does it
record the achievement in the Great War of the British Navyassisted by the Merchant
Navybut it aims at keeping in mindful remembrance that it was on French soil that
England was defended by the combined efforts and equal heroism of Frenchman and
Englishman fighting shoulder to shoulder in defence of their common freedom. A
Memorial Court and Cloisters, bearing on the east wall the commemorative tablet, forms
the central structure and opens out on the south side into a concert, billiards and lounge
hall, and in the south-west corner to the Memorial Chapel and yet another finely furnished
billiard room. Residential and boarding facilities are provided on the first and second
floors of the south wing, which contains a dining room, five single and double bedrooms
and six small cubicles. In the north-west corner of the Memorial Court is the entrance
to the quarters of the resident padre and in an adjacent building (the practically un
touched pre-war part), which contains the historic Kitchener Memorial Room," the
other members of the staff are housed. The Memorial is thus a most comprehensive and
complete entity. By the purchase of some adjoining property, an endowment from its
rentals, for the upkeep of the buildings, was secured, though unfortunately this has now
proved to be quite inadequate and recently 2,000 has been raised by the sustained
generosity of a few friends to augment it.
It must always be a matter of pride that the foundation stone was laid by H.R.H.
the Duke of York on July 25th, 1922, and that the buildings were opened by the Princess
Alice, Countess of Athlone, just a year later. At the opening ceremony there also took
place the dedication of the Memorial Chapel by Bishop de Jersey, of the Falkland Islands,
himself in other days a padre to the Merchant Service.
Finally, with the vesting of the entire property in a Trust duly incorporated under
the Companies Acts, and the custody and maintenance of the War Memorial undertaken
by the Missions to Seamen, was completed a purposeful and far-reaching enterprise
in which founders and subscribers alike may be proudly thankful to have borne a part.
The ideal of the War Memorial stands self-revealed in the foregoing story of its
origin, birth and most characteristic features. It aims at being and becoming an
Everyman's Club primarily for officers and men of the Merchant Navy, but it recognizes
gladly its obligation to welcome all-comers and to render what service it may as well
by land as by sea in the one-time war area where it is set up. Happily, now, there are
many opportunities of so doing, not least in such movements as Toe H and the Ypres
League itself. A never-failing witness to its underlying significance is the yearly obser
vance of Armistice Day, when a Service of Remembrance is always held in the Memorial
Chapel and a wreath of laurel and Flanders poppies laid at the foot of the Unknown
Soldier's Battle Cross. The war is fading so fast into the mists of the past that few
people quite realize that there are 2,000 British cemeteries in France and yet another
500 in Belgium, and that the largest of thesethat of Tyne Cotcontains, among its
14,000 graves, no less than 6,000 which bear the proudly pathetic inscription an
unknown British soldier."
As it actively operates among sailormen, the War Memorial provides the amenities
and accustomed recreations of a well-appointed club, while in the winter months dances,
whist drives, concerts and an occasional excursion into amateur dramaticsshared by
shore friendshelp the evenings most cheerily along. On the more domestic side of
things its dining-room, its bedrooms, large and small, make welcome invitation to the
married officer, to the wife awaiting her husband's ship and to the wayfarer by sea or
land in search of a roof for the night.
But more closely akin still to its true purpose, it seeks to promote and inspire a
clubbable spirit (some clubs can be so desperatety cold and calamitous Therefore
