Ae Anonymous Hero.
THE YPRES TIMES
ii
their own fallen, but all those who made the supreme sacrifice in the Great War,
irrespective of race or creed.
As 1 returned into Ypres, 1 paused for a few minutes before the Cloth Hall
to read a notice, worded as follows:"The Burgomaster and the City Council
of Ypres urge you to remember that the ground you walk on is hallowed by the
sacrifice of 250,000 British officers and men, who were killed or wounded in four
terrible years of war in the Salient of Ypres, and whose heroism Belgium can
never forget."
The Old Contf.mptibles."
In an alcove, not far away from this notice, were two plaques surrounded by-
garlands, which had been placed there on a previous Remembrance Day. The
inscription on the first read as follows:
to the vanguard, ypres, i914.
Ohlittle force that in your agony
Stood fast, whilst Britain girt her armour on,
Held high our honour in your wounded hands,
Carried our honour safe with bleeding feet,
We have no glory great enough for you.
The other one, from the Ypres League, bore the following inscription:
in honoured memory of
those who died in the defence of ypres,
I9I41918.
On this day, nth November, 1914, the supreme effort of the
Prussian Guard was shattered by the exhausted British, and the
road to the Channel ports barred.
With a -great price our glorious dead maintained our cause. That sacrifice can
never he forgotten. May the breath of God that stirs the grasses on their graves
keep the dust of forgetfulness from settling on our hearts
Sir,
As an annual subscriber since some years to
your paper, might I venture to ask your help in
elucidating the following
At Ypres in, I think, 1915, there was an
English soldier known to the sisters of the Poor
Clares at Ypres by the single name of Benedict"
Without going into details as to all this Catholic
soldier, who, I understand, was either a deacon
or sub-deacon when the war broke out, did to
help the nuns of the Poor Clare Convent, they
can never cease speaking of all he did and the
gratitude they feel towards him. They are most
anxious to know what became of him, as after
they were forced to leave Ypres and went to
France, they never saw him again.
To give you an idea of the courage and devo
tion of Benedict, it will be sufficient to relate the
history of Zillebeke Church, which by 1915,
had been reduced to a mass of ruins. Benedict
on his own, searched and searched among the
ruins, always under fire, until he found the
ciborium filled with the Sacred Hosts. He
secured this and, putting on vestments, he found
in the ruined sacristy, he procured a horse and
four other soldiers, with candles lit, and carried
the Blessed Hosts back to Ypres through intense
fire from the enemy. He went straight to the
Poor Clares Convent and there deposited his
sacred burden. I believed he was nominally
punished for absence from the trenches without
leave, etc. Now, can you tell me, or perhaps
find out from some of your correspondents what
became of Benedict
J. S. De Bay.
27, Rue de l'Aqueduc,
Brussels.
Any information on the subject should be
communicated to the Secretary, Ypres League,
9, Baker Street, London, W. 1
Letter reprinted by kind permission of
The Universe."
