Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial
Work began to construct The Menin Gate in June 1923. After four years of extensive works and inevitable politics
and in a ceremony attended by King George V, King Albert I, many other distinguished guests,
15,000 pilgrims and visitors, and a BBC radio broadcasting unit, the
Gate was formally unveiled by Field Marshal Plumer on July 24th, 1927.
Standing on the South East side of Ypres (called Ieper today) town, The Menin Gate
was raised to commemorate those Commonwealth soldiers who had died defending the strategically placed
town between 1914 & 1917, and who had no known grave. It was not built, as many still
think today to celebrate any victory.
Such was the scale of allied losses in defence of the town that with its many
inscribed stone panels filled to capacity with 54,000 names, a further
34,000 that could not be fitted into the limited space were placed
on the Tyne Cot Memorial just a few kilometres away.
Apart from a pause through WW2, the sounding of the Last Post has been held at the Gate every night
since 1928, as a perpetual act of thanks by the people of Ypres. In
a nightly routine the traffic is stopped, the Last Post is played
by buglers of the Last Post Committee and then life resumes its pace.
Whether shared with one or two, or thousands in the case of Remembrance
Day services in November, one cannot fail to be moved by the ceremony.
Menin Gate Panels 30 & 32 list all Canadian Mounted Rifles regiments
(1st, 2nd, 4th & 5th) together.
710 soldiers are listed over 16 tablets: the right-most column, middle and lower tablets of Panel 30
and 4 full columns and the top & middle tablets of the 5th column on Panel 32.
232 1stCMR, 73 2ndCMR, 238 4thCMR & 165 5thCMR men are listed.
These images were taken by Ian Forsdike, Nov 11th, 2004