It was a cold sunny morning when we arrived at Ieper – less than an hour’s drive from Brussels. Our host met us under the well-known Menin Gate, a ‘Missing Memorial’ built in 1927. And 1928 onwards, the local fire brigade has been organising ‘The Last Post‘, a 10 minutes play which is performed everyday, right in the middle of the street here. If we were to count the number of times this recital has occurred since, we would reach a rough number of 29669.
The only time this tradition was interrupted was from 1940 – 1944 when Hitler’s army infiltrated the region. This was also when Ieper saw the highest number of wounded and deceased populating its town.After the war, the denizens got together in an effort to rebuilt the ruins and give the departed a genteel farewell into the afterlife.
Soon the dead – even those whose bodies were missing, enemies included, had a dedicated tombstone. Foes got a flat-topped tombstone as opposed to the curved ones, which were made from a different material as well. But there was one binding factor for all – respect for the dead. Today there are around 150 British cemeteries in and around Ieper. Some can even go on for acres. Not all have always been cemetery grounds though.
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