Remembrance day at the Menim Gate in Ypres.
We started the next day at the lovely ramparts cemetery which overlooks the moat that surrounds Ypres. After the 11 O'clock ceremony, we headed out to the excellent Passchendaele museum and from there onto to the Tyne Cot cemetery. As ever, this is an inspiring place. The memorial to the 33,783 men with no known grave who died on the Ypres salient is here. These are the names that would not fit on the Menim Gate in Ypres itself. As always in these places, it is the details that really bring it home to you. Although at first sight it is the number of graves that shocks, it is when you start looking at them individually that you realise that these were all ordinary people. For example, I think we tend to think that the 'Pals Battalions' came from working class Northern towns, but here is the names of the civil service battalion's missing and on the right is the cyclist's corps. What did they do in the war? Presumably messengers.
Our final stop on the Ypres salient was at a cemetery at Lijssentoek. There are various things of interest here. Firstly, there are very few unnamed graves (as it was a hospital they knew who people were). Secondly, the early graves are laid out by rank; one of the few places where this happened as the practice was stopped almost immediately. The reason we went there is that there are several graves belonging to members of the Chinese Labour Corps. who died in the area of Ypres and Poperinghe during and after the First World War. The Chinese Labour Corps was used to clear battlefields, dig graves, trenches and carry out other such tasks which were often difficult and dangerous.
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AuthorsWe are teachers and have worked in various schools in Europe & Asia. This is really a chronicle of out travels over the years. It is meant for us to look back on, reflect and remember where we've been, what we've done and all our little adventures. If you like it too, then fab! If you don't, do you think we care? Archives
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