A June Sunday in the Salient»
Ypres
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Vol. 6, No. 3
Published Quarterly
July, 1932
IMPRESSIVE MEMORIAL SERVICE AT YPRES.
Specially contributed to the Ypres Times.")
By Henry Benson, M.A.
THOSE whose privilege it was to be present on the morning of Sunday, June
5th, at the special Memorial Service in St. George's Church, Ypres, will
ever remember the simple dignity and beauty of the ceremony. Headed by the
Bishop of Fulham (North and Central Europe), the officiating clergy were the
Rev. E. H. Thorold (Chaplain-General to the Forces), the Rev. A. Fleming
(Church of Scotland), the Rev. E. Harrison (Chaplain to the Fifth Division), the
Rev. P. B. Clayton Toe H."), and the Rev. G. R. Milner (British Chaplain
at Ypres). The large and representative congregation included General Sir Charles
Harington (General Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Aldershot), General Sir Reginald
Stephens, Lieut.-General Sir W. P. Pulteney, Lieut.-Colonel F. C. and Mrs.
Tanner, Colonel F. G. and Mrs. Poole, Mrs. L. K. Briggs, Miss R. C. H. Fleming,
Miss R. Osborne (Matron-in-Chief, T.A.N.S., War Office), Miss G. Monnach,
T.A.N.S. (Principal Matron, Addenbrooke's Hospital, Cambridge), Miss W. W.
Bowling (Matron, Royal Hospital, Sheffield), local representatives of the Imperial
War Graves Commission, and a party from England of widows and mothers of men
who fell in the Salient, whose presence was made possible by the generosity of
the Ypres League.
Five memorable functions, associated with the adornment of the church,
characterized the service. In the unavoidable absence of Field-Marshal Viscount
Plumer, a record chest, presented by the Second Army Staff in memory of their
fallen comrades, containing illuminated Rolls of Honour of the 10th Hussars and
the Scots Guards, together with a parchment scroll of the names of generous donors
and their gifts that furnish and beautify the sacred fabric, was unveiled by General
Sir Charles Harington. The chest was designed by Sir Reginald Blomfield, R.A.,
and is the work of M. de Wispelaere of Bruges.
