(August 30th to September ist, 1918.)
THE YPRES TIMES
197
It should be mentioned that the G.C.B. banner of the late Field Marshal The Earl of Ypres, which
during his lifetime hung in Westminster Abbey, has recently been placed in St. George's Church at
Ypres. This banner was presented to the Church by the present Earl of Ypres.
In connection with the Special Service we print below a telegram sent to the
King from Ypres, and His Majesty's reply:
His Majesty The King,
Buckingham Palace,
London. June 3rd, 1933.
General Sir Charles Harington, President, members of the Ypres League, of which your Majesty
is Patron-in-Chief, and the British community in Ypres, assembled for the Dedication of the Memorials
to the late Field Marshal Viscount Plumer, by the Bishop of London in St. George's Church, Ypres,
to-morrow, send their loyal and humble greetings on the occasion of your Majesty's birthday.
The Secretary, Ypres British Settlement,
The Vicarage,
Rue d'ElverdTnghe,
Ypres. June 4th, 1933.
Please convey to the members of the Ypres League, assembled to dedicate the memorials to the
late Lord Plumer, the King's sincere thanks for their loyal message of birthday greetings.
Private Secretary.
THE village of Morval lies mid-way between Ee Transloy and Combles, one
and a half miles north of the latter and about a mile south-south-east of
Lesboeufs, in what was once the starkest wilderness of war's worst devastation
the Somme. On September 26th, 1916, Morval was captured from the Germans
by our 5th Division and remained in British occupation until March 24th, 1918 when
it was lost, recovered by the enemy in his successful March advance. By that time
the village had become, like most Somme towns and villages, unrecognisable
except as a collection of scattered ruins. To-day, of course, the wilderness
blossoms and the war might be forgotten but for the Morval British Cemetery.
This stands like a beautiful garden on the western outskirts of the village on
fairly high ground, surrounded by richly fertile and well cultivated fields. The
cemetery is only a small one, but of the 54 graves which it contains, all except
onethat of a captured Germanare those of soldiers of the Welsh Division
killed in or near Morval between August 26th and September 6th, 1918. Most of
them fell during two days onlyAugust 30th and September 1st. There was for
a while another cemetery, the Morval New Cemetery, on the north side of the
MorvalSailly Road just before it crosses the side road to Le Transloy and
Combles. It contained 39 graves, and these, too, were all of the 38th (Welsh)
Welch is the spelling now adopted by what was then known as the Welsh Regiment. This
form of the word (which, however, we spell it, is English and not Welsh) is therefore used for that
regiment, but not for the Division.
By C. L. Berry.
(1Captainlate 13th Welch Regiment).
