Speaker: The Menin Gate: 100 YEARS OF COMMEMORATION - Ipswich District Branch

Join speaker Paul White from the CWGC for a presentation on The Menin Gate: 100 Years of Commemoration. 

The Menin Gate is one of four memorials to the missing in Belgian Flanders which cover the area known as the Ypres Salient. The Salient was formed during the First Battle of Ypres in October and November 1914.

The site of the Menin Gate was chosen because of the hundreds of thousands of men who passed through it on their way to the battlefields. It commemorates casualties from the forces of Australia, Canada, India, South Africa and United Kingdom who died in the Salient prior to 16 August 1917.

The Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial now bears the names of more than 54,000 officers and men whose graves are not known. The memorial was unveiled by Lord Plumer on 24 July 1927.

This talk will give an introduction to the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, the Menin Gate before and after the First World War, the Battles of Ypres, the design and completion of the memorial, and how it is today. It will also tell the stories of some of those commemorated on the Menin Gate.

The presentation is 30-45 minutes with refreshments served after the event. 

All are welcome to this is a free event with donations to the CWGC 

For further information about this event please contact:

---