"He is not missing, He is here"
Field Marshal Lord Plumer at the unveiling of the Menin Gate Memorial to the Missing
24th July 1927.

The Menin Gate, Ypres looking towards the Square and Cloth Hall Click to view Memorial plan

The Menin Gate Memorial to the Missing at Ypres bears the names of 56,000 soldiers of the British Empire who fell in the Ypres Salient between November 1914 and 15th/16th August 1917 and have no known grave. Their names are engraved in Portland stone panels fixed to the inner walls of the Hall, to the sides of the staircases and inside the loggias on the north and south sides of the building. A further 35,000 servicemen who disappeared in the Salient between 16th August 1917 and the end of the war are commemorated on The Tyne Cot Memorial at nearby Passchendaele.

Menin Gate and Moat

 

The Menin Gate sits astride the town ramparts

View memorial plan


The names of The Gordon  Highlanders are located  on the rear wall of the entrance Click to view plan of The Menin Gate Memorial

The Menin Gate Memorial was completed in 1927, 10 years after the 3rd battle of Ypres. Although the area was known as the Menin Gate, there has not been a gate there since medieval times but the gap in the ramparts was known as the Menin Gate. It is situated at the eastern exit from the city on the road leading to Menen (Menin) and Kortrijk (Courtrai). Almost all Allied troops fighting in the Ypres Salient passed through the gate at some time. Today it is still an important thoroughfare for traffic and pedestrians and every evening police close the road to traffic while buglers of the The Last Post Committee sound the Last Post.

In the centre of both north and south sides there is a broad staircase leading from the Hall of Memory up to the ramparts and to loggias that run along the length of the building. Above the arch on the west side, facing the town, there is a sarcophagus adorned with a flag and wreath. On the east side a recumbant Lion watches out along the the Menin Road and over the former battlefields of The Ypres Salient.

Watching out over the former battlefields of Ypres

The inscription reads

To the armies of The British Empire who stood here from 1914-1918
and to those of their dead who have no known grave

Ieper (Flemish) Ypres (French)

Grote Markt, Ypres with the Cloth Hall and Cathedral in the background

In Medieval times Ypres was a prosperous town situated on the major route between Lille and Bruges, a thriving centre of the textile industry. The town was almost completely destroyed during World War 1 when three great battles were fought there. Over one million people were killed, wounded or missing as a result of the actions in the Ypres Salient. The town contains many museums and memorials to those lost in the Great War, the most notable of these being the Menin Gate.

The buglers take their place



Waiting to pay tribute at 8pm





The Last Post Ceremony

The daily sounding of the Last Post as a suitable memorial to those commemorated on the Menin Gate began on 1st July 1928, a year after the inauguration of the Menin Gate Memorial, and was the idea of Monsieur Vandenbraambusche, a superintendent in the Belgian police. Originally held at sunset, the ceremony now takes place at 2000 hrs every day, except on significant days such as Remembrance Day when it is also played at 1100 hrs.



During WW2, from the commencement of the German occupation of Belgium on 20 May 1940, the ceremony was carried out daily at Brookwood Military Cemetery, Surrey.

On the very evening that Polish forces liberated Ypres the ceremony was resumed at the Menin Gate, in spite of the heavy fighting still going on in other parts of the town.

 

 

 

The crowd gathers to pay their respects to the Fallen

The police halt the traffic through the Memorial and the buglers take their position. At 8pm precisely the sound of Last Post begins to echo round the Hall of Memory. Large numbers of visitors witness the ceremony each evening.

On the 31st October 2001 a special ceremony marked the 25,000th sounding of the Last Post at the Menin Gate.
The Last Post Committe also decided that for one year they would honour one of the Missing from the Memorial by reading alound his name on the aniversary of his death. A book will be produced and an exhit on these men will be included in the 'In Flanders Fields' exhibition in the Cloth Hall.


The author of this site advanced the name of Robert Gordon for their consideration and has been advised that his name will be read out on 19th June 2002.(11/11/2001)

Two of Pat's nephews, two neices and three others will travel to Ypres to be at the Menin Gate on the evening of the commemoration of their uncle. This will be the first visit by family members to the area. They also hope to visit the Le Touret Memorial bearing the name of his brother George.

Click to view details and photos of family visit, 19/6/2002


Last Post is sounded at 8pm

The buglers sound Last Post

IN MAIOREM DEI GLORIAM
HERE ARE RECORDED NAMES
OF OFFICERS AND MEN WHO FELL
IN YPRES SALIENT BUT TO WHOM
THE FORTUNE OF WAR DENIED
THE KNOWN AND HONOURED BURIAL
GIVEN TO THEIR COMRADES IN DEATH

Inscription over the entrance to the southern staircase

--------------------

THEY SHALL RECEIVE A CROWN OF GLORY THAT
FADETH NOT AWAY

Inscription over the entrance to the northern staircase


Entrance to Southern Loggia

The Southern staircase entrance.

 

The panels bearing the names of Gordon Highlanders


Robert Gordon, The Gordon Highlanders

The panels with the names of Gordon Highlanders are located within the doorway leading to the ramparts.

The name of Robert Gordon

The name of Pte Robert Gordon




The names of Gordon Highlanders

The names are recored alphabetically by regiment and rank.

Menin Gate and Ypres photographed August 2001