Memorial: YPRES (MENIN GATE) MEMORIAL

Grave/Memorial Reference: Panel 34. 


 

Albert was a professional soldier when the war broke out. He moved to France with the B.E.F and was subsequently killed whilst fighting near Ypres in Belgium. On the 28th November 1914 the 1st battalion was visited by the Corps Commander Lieutenant General Sir Horace Smith-Dorrien at Dranoutre. On 28th November 1914 the 1st battalion EastNSurrey Regiment relieved the 1st Devonshire Regiment in trenches west of Messines near Wulverghem in Belgium. It is probable that Albert lost his life near Wulverghem. (By kind permission of kentfallen.com)


 

 

Country: Belgium Locality: Ieper, West-Vlaanderen Visiting Information: Work will commence on the Menin Gate Memorial, Bay 21, on 13 February and should be finished by the end of April 2006. This is the final phase in of a five year project. The work consists of removing all the panels on this bay, fixing a damp proof membrane and refixing new panels. While the work is being carried out, access to this part of the memorial is impossible and the memorial should be viewed from the town side. People wishing to visit the upper gallery will have to use the public footpath on the left hand side and view the memorial from the town side. Panel Numbers quoted at the end of each entry relate to the panels dedicated to the Regiment served with. In some instances where a casualty is recorded as attached to another Regiment, his name may alternatively appear within their Regimental Panels. Please refer to the on-site Memorial Register Introduction to determine the alternative panel numbers if you do not find the name within the quoted Panels. The design of this site makes access to certain parts of the memorial impossible by wheelchair. For further information regarding wheelchair access, please contact our Enquiries Section on telephone number 01628 507200. Location Information: Ypres (now Ieper) is a town in the Province of West Flanders. The Memorial is situated at the eastern side of the town on the road to Menin (Menen) and Courtrai (Kortrijk). Each night at 8 pm the traffic is stopped at the Menin Gate while members of the local Fire Brigade sound the Last Post in the roadway under the Memorial’s arches. Historical Information: The Menin Gate is one of four memorials to the missing in Belgian Flanders which cover the area known as the Ypres Salient. Broadly speaking, the Salient stretched from Langemarck in the north to the northern edge in Ploegsteert Wood in the south, but it varied in area and shape throughout the war. The Salient was formed during the First Battle of Ypres in October and November 1914, when a small British Expeditionary Force succeeded in securing the town before the onset of winter, pushing the German forces back to the Passchendaele Ridge. The Second Battle of Ypres began in April 1915 when the Germans released poison gas into the Allied lines north of Ypres. This was the first time gas had been used by either side and the violence of the attack forced an Allied withdrawal and a shortening of the line of defence. There was little more significant activity on this front until 1917, when in the Third Battle of Ypres an offensive was mounted by Commonwealth forces to divert German attention from a weakened French front further south. The initial attempt in June to dislodge the Germans from the Messines Ridge was a complete success, but the main assault north-eastward, which began at the end of July, quickly became a dogged struggle against determined opposition and the rapidly deteriorating weather. The campaign finally came to a close in November with the capture of Passchendaele. The German offensive of March 1918 met with some initial success, but was eventually checked and repulsed in a combined effort by the Allies in September. The battles of the Ypres Salient claimed many lives on both sides and it quickly became clear that the commemoration of members of the Commonwealth forces with no known grave would have to be divided between several different sites. 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 those of all Commonwealth nations (except New Zealand) who died in the Salient, in the case of United Kingdom casualties before 16 August 1917. Those United Kingdom and New Zealand servicemen who died after that date are named on the memorial at Tyne Cot, a site which marks the furthest point reached by Commonwealth forces in Belgium until nearly the end of the war. Other New Zealand casualties are commemorated on memorials at Buttes New British Cemetery and Messines Ridge British Cemetery. The YPRES (MENIN GATE) MEMORIAL now bears the names of more than 54,000 officers and men whose graves are not known. The memorial, designed by Sir Reginald Blomfield with sculpture by Sir William Reid-Dick, was unveiled by Lord Plumer in July 1927. No. of Identified Casualties: 54344

 

No responses yet

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recent Comments