The King’s Royal Rifle Corps Memorial on Menin Road, near Ypres (Ieper) Belgium:-

Last Post at Menin Gate, May 2017:-

For Remembrance Day.

In 2017 we attended the Last Post Ceremony at the Menin Gate, Ypres (Ieper,) for the second time.

First set of bugle calls:-

Flag lowering:-

End of Ceremony bugle calls:-

An arch with a cross in the gap, lanterns to either side.

I have featured this memorial before but it was partly obscured by a street fair then. In September 2023 it wasn’t.

Great War Dedication and names:-

World War 2 Dedication and names. Also on  pavement below the inscription, “220 miles to Ypres”:-

This time were able to get into the street behind the memorial where there was an assortment of wreaths:-

The plaque to the right above is a Victoria Cross commemoration. Lt Colonel Philip Bent, Leicestershire Regiment, 1/10/1917:-

Close up on tributes to left above:-

Today is Armistice Day, which ended the hostilities of the Great War 106 years ago.

I posted some photos of Duhallow War Cemetery yesterday but today I’m concentrating on the Great War dead. Duhallow contains graves of men from several of the armies involved in that conflict.

The next two photos feature pillars which note the men commemorated there were originally buried in other cemeteries which were destroyed in later battles.

Crescent of Headstones; original burials in Fusilier Wood:-

Line of Headstones; transferred from Malakoff Farm Cemetery:-

I presumed these markers denoted the graves of brothers Privates W & A Barr, Seaforth Highlanders, 9/1/1918:-

I found two French graves.

Jules Viard and Jean Carret, both mort pour la France, 24/10/1918:-

And a Belgian grave, of Antoine Vandegam, died 19/10/1918. The photo also shows the graves of Sapper, J Rooney, RE, October, 1918 aged 25 and Serjeant P Hackett, Leinster Regiment, 18/10/1918:-

Star of David headstone for Private S Margolis, Labour Corps, 9/1/1918, aged 24, flanked by Private P Montague, Seaforth Highlanders, 9/1/1918 and Private W Middleton, Seaforth Highlanders, 9/1/1918:-

Two Germans; Curt Hoyer, Grenadier, 16/10/1918 and Johann Hobelsberger, Private, date of death obscured:-

The front row below is for other German war dead:-

For Remembrance Day.

Duhallow is one of the many War Cemeteries you come upon in and around Ypres (Ieper) in Belgium. It lies beside the Diksmuidseweg on the  road designated N369 leading more or less north out of Ypres. In it there lie the remains of 1544 Commonwealth casualties plus 57 graves of other nationalities.

Cemetery from road:-

View from gates:-

Graves:-

One of the graves is of a Second World War soldier, Private D Morrell, Durham Light Infantry, who died on 29/5/1940, aged 21:-

Ypres Town Cemetery sits beside the Menin Road, not far from the Menin Gate in Ieper, (Ypres) Belgium.

It contains a number of Commonwealth War Graves of Great War dead.

I noted that these were all casualties from 1914. They were no doubt interred here since at that time there was no Commonwealth War Graves Commission to oversee the burials and these would have been done on an ad hoc basis. After the war they will have been given the honour of a CWGC headstone.

Reverse view of above:-

Several graves lay close together. Cpt Robert Giffard, Royal Field Artillery, 1/11/1914. Cpt A A L Stephen, DSO, Scots Guards, 31/10/1914. Cpt & Adjt W H Ferrar, Welch Regiment, 31/10/1914:-

2nd Lt J A Tucker, Royal Field Artillery, 1/11/1914. Cpt G P Shedden, Royal Garrison Artillery, 31/10/1914. Cpt J F Allen, Loyal North Lancs Regt, 5/11/1914 aged 32:-

Captain Shedden’s grave is unusual in having a separate memorial stone cross behind the CWGC one. This may have been erected by his family before the CWGC headstone and is probably only there because the cemetery is not in the care of the CWGC, where all headstones are the same shape and, beyond wording carved into the bottom of the stone, such individual commemorations are not allowed.

Lybster is a village on the A 99 in Caithness about 13 miles south of Wick.

Its War Memorial is a granite obelisk situated on the east side of the road. Dedicated to “the men of Lybster and Swiney who fell in the Great European War and the Great World War”:-

Reverse of Lybster War Memorial. World War 2 dedication. Upper list is of World War 2 names, the lower is for the Great War:-

Close-up on names. The obelisk is aslo inscribed with the names of Great War battle scenes, Paschendaele, Beaumont Hamel, Ostend, Festubert, Vimy, Neuve Chapelle, Somme, Zeebrugge, Cambrai, Peronne, Jutland, Marne, Mons, Ypres, Loos.

On the wall behind the memorial is a plaque commemorating the village’s founder:-

Hill 62 Trenches museum is on Canadalaan near Ypres (Ieper.) I previously posted on its external exhibits and the trenches on Armistice Day.

The first two here are not typical of German commemoration markers.

German Grave Cross:-

German Gravestone (inscribed Fried Her Lander):-

This is in the more usual German commemorative style. German Headstone (inscribed H Langer and F Schrobsdorf):-

German Wooden Memorial:-

Engine Part:-

Model Tanks and Poilu Bugler:-

Mortars, Grenade Launchers Etc:-

Trench Mortars:-

Wartime Poster in support of Serbia:-

Memorial tributes:-

Trench Art Windmill:-

The museum is situated on the Canadalaan off the Menin Road, near Ypres (Ieper,) Belgium. I have mentioned Canadalaan before, here and here.

The board describes the museum as a Museum Tranchées (Trenches Museum.)

Two field guns flank the museum’s frontage:-

The museum building contains many relics of the Great War but its main interest is a set of relatively well-preserved trenches to the rear of the building where the trees of Sanctuary Wood have returned.

These supports for barbed wire lean against the back of the building:-

View of Trenches:-

Derelict aero engines and shell craters:-

More craters:-

Trench line:-

More trenches:-

A dugout:-

Trench mortar and trenches:-

Tunnel entrance:-

Part of tunnel:-

Tunnel exit:-

This memorial lies at the end of Canadalaan (see here) and commemorates the efforts of the Canadian Corps in defending the southern parts of the Ypres salient during 1916. Information about the memorial and the battles fought there is here.

The memorial garden lies on a small plateau hidden as you walk up to it by a wall on which is situated this plaque:-

The memorial:-

Approach steps, here seen from the memorial side:-

The inscription round the memorial’s base reads, “HONOUR TO THE CANADIANS WHO ON THE FIELDS OF FLANDERS AND FRANCE FOUGHT IN THE CAUSE OF THE ALLIES WITH SACRIFICE AND DEVOTION.”

The dedication reads, “HERE AT MOUNT SORREL AND ON THE LINE FROM HOOGE TO ST. ELOI THE CANADIAN CORPS FOUGHT IN THE DEFENCE OF YPRES APRIL – AUGUST 1916.”
The memorial lies on Hill 62, though, not on Mount Sorrel:-

Looking east from the memorial:-

Looking south. Such peaceful countryside now:-