The Easter Pilgrimage of 1933
THE YPRES TIMES
211
A PARTY of pilgrims, including the old sweats and their wives, one of
whom was ex-Nursing Sister F. A. Hayden (Mrs. Fry), of the Canadian Army
Medical Corps, met at Victoria Station on Saturday, April 14th. We arrived
at Ostend just in time to catch the train for the Immortal Salient (Ypres), where
we were met by the Ypres League's representative, Mr. C. J. Parminter, and
conducted to comfortable accommodation at the Hotel Splendid and Britannique.
On Sunday morning some of the party visited the
British church, while others journeyed to various
cemeteries or renewed acquaintance with familiar spots.
After lunch we all enjoyed a charabanc tour of the
Salient, leaving Ypres by the Rue de Dixmude, and
passing White House and Oxford Road Cemeteries,
the 50th Northumbria Division Memorial and the mag
nificent St. Julien Memorial erected in honour of
2,000 Canadians who fell in the first gas attack on
April 22nd, 1915. Our next stop was at the Guynemer
Memorial to the famous French ace who, after three
years of fighting, was killed on September nth, 1917,
at the age of 21 years. Passchendaele Ridge was next
on the itinerary where we examined the Canadian
Memorial and the Memorial Window to the 66th
Lancashire Division, which has been placed in the
local church. Tyne Cot Cemetery, with its memorial
to the Missing," was deeply impressive, and the
cemetery contains the original Tyne Cot blockhouse
captured by the 2nd Australian Division on October
4th, 1917. The tour continued to Polygon Wood,
Clapham Junction, Stirling Castle and the Canadian
Memorial at Hill 62, consisting of a large tract of land
planted with maple trees from Canada, and a large
circular stone pavement surrounding a short stone
column. Sanctuary Wood still contains some of the
old trenches, duck boards, shrapnel scarred tree trunks,
old tin hats, rifles rusted with age, and numerous
other war materials, all of which reminded us of other
days. Hell Fire Corner was passed en route to
Hill 60, where we reconnoitred some of the old
trenches and tunnels, and saw the memorials to the
Queen Victoria Rifles and the 1st Australian
Tunnelling Company. This concluded our day's
adventure.
The following day was the anniversary of the capT
ture of Vimy Ridge, and I was particularly anxious
to visit our old home on the Ridge and to say that
sixteen years after I again walked the trenches and
tunnels. So bright and early on Easter Monday, a
contrast to the dismal rainy days we once knew, we
were off down the road past Shrapnel Corner and
Dickebusch, passing Mount Kemmel on our right, the
London Scottish Memorial, New Zealand Memorial
CANADIAN MEMORIAL
AT ST. JULIEN.
CHRIST DES TRENCHES
AT NEUVE CHAPELLE.
