68
THE YPRES TIMES
to the soldier's heart as the plaintive notes of the Last Post." In the daily
round of his dutiful work it tells him of the end of a day of this troublous life,
that the shades have lengthened, the evening come, the busy world hushed, his
task done and he may rest. Then, when he goes to the graveside to say a last
farewell to a comrade who has passed to the beyond, he hears again the Last
Post to tell him that his comrade has been given eternal rest and peace from
his earthly sorrows and perplexities. Réveillé," on the other hand, sounding
in lofty triumph in the face of what men call death, bids him to lift up his
heart, to be strong and of good courage, and to arise because the sun is in the
heavens and night is at an end.
After the ceremony Sir Charles Harington inspected the local members of the
British Legion, many of whom are employees of the Imperial War Graves Com
mission. In the evening a service in the church was conducted by Dr. Fleming.
Pilgrims' Visits to Graves and Memorials.
The bereaved widows, mothers and children, who had made the journey, free
of cost, through the kindness of the Ypres League, spent the afternoon in personal
visits to memorials or graves. Each pilgrim was taken by motor-car to the par
ticular memorial which records the name, or to the little plot of greensward that
marks the last resting-place of one whose sacrifice rendered the family circle
desolate and void. They had come from distant parts of Great Britain with wistful
yearning in their eyes, half dreading the visit to a strange land. But, brave in their
sorrow, they essayed the journey, and returned home full of peaceful joy and
content. None had previously seen the war cemeteries. None could have done
so then, unless the cost had been defrayed and the arrangements (so bewildering
to the inexperienced), made for them by the sympathetic organization and
forethought of Capt. G. E. de Trafford, the League's Secretary.
Unknown Soldiers."
Many memorials have been erected to the honour of our fallen, but none
has so stirred the heart and gripped the imagination as that at Menin Gate, with
its long and glorious list of those who have no known resting-place." As I stood
in its glorious Hall of Memory on the evening of Sunday, June 5th, in com
pany with these pilgrim guests of the Ypres League, listening to the Last Post,"
which is sounded each night throughout the year as the tribute of the Yprois
to the British who fell in the defence of their immortal city, a thought flashed
through my mind that may bring hope and consolation to mourners, whose dear
ones are commemorated on its panels.
In every British cemetery, in and around Ypres, may be seen rows of simple
headstones, marking graves of men whose names are unknown. At the top of
each of these headstones are the words A Soldier of the Great War." Then
follows an incised cross, such as is on all stones erected to those of the Christian
faith, and below the cross, Known unto God."
In graves like these lie the bodies of many thousands of fallen British warriors
whose resting-place we shall never know. I would point out to mourners who
visit Menin Gate or other collective memorials that, although their loved one is
still among the missing it does not necessarily mean that he has found no
honoured grave. Probably, somewhere in one of those lovely Gardens of Peace,
he is sleeping—"An Unknown British Soldier—known unto God."
