2023-11-11 12:34:43
On this Monday, November 6, there are “only” around 200 attending the “Last Post”, the ceremony which is held daily at the Menin Gate (1), in Ypres. “It’s calm, because we’re approaching November 11 when we’re expecting between 7,000 and 8,000 people,” indicates Benoit Mottrie, president of l’association du Last Post. Little known on the other side of the border, this ceremony, listed in 2011 by the Flemish government as intangible cultural heritage, is unusual.
Every day at 8 p.m., whatever the weather, two, three or four buglers, sometimes accompanied by a bagpipe player, strike up the music of the Last Post, the “Last Post” played in the British army to mark the end of day and the beginning of rest during the war. A daily tribute attended by many British and Commonwealth citizens, who come to Ypres to honor this almost century-old tradition.
“The language around the Menin Gate is English,” notes Benoit Mottrie when discussing the three visits of Queen Elizabeth II. But the Belgians, especially the Flemings, also remain attached to it because the memory of the First World War is alive in this part of Belgium, a major theater of battle on the Western Front.
Only the Second World War interrupted this tradition
It’s 8 p.m. Participants stand to attention. The bugles intone the Last Post, in the middle of the gathered crowd. This evening, four bugles accompany this tribute originally paid to the soldiers of the British Empire and now extended to all soldiers who died on the front.
The musicians are volunteer firefighters from Ypres, that’s the rule; They are also wearing their uniform, a long navy blue coat. Only six men provide all the “Last Post” of the year, every other week! A hell of a constraint, “but above all an honor, confides Christophe Wils, 49 years old, bugler since 2010. I think of all these men who fought for us, for our freedom and of all these families who lost one of theirs, it’s the least we can do that…”.
Then a master of ceremonies (or steward) reads, in Flemish and English, a short extract from For the Fallena poem by Laurence Binyon written in 1914: « We will remember them », we hear distinctly. A minute of silence follows the exhortation, before the laying of the wreaths. Ellis, Cara and Elise, three young girls from a college near Antwerp, solemnly bring the red “poppy” crown made by one of their teachers. Three other sheaves follow.
The bugles finally intone the Réveil, which closes the tribute. Life then resumes its course, and traffic already resumes, interrupted around the Menin Gate every evening from 7:30 p.m. The ceremony lasted around ten minutes.
The Last Post resonated here for the first time, among the Ypres population, during the inauguration of the Menin Gate, on July 24, 1927, built in honor of the British soldiers who fell at the front. The ceremony was permanently established on May 1, 1929, a few months after the creation of the “Last Post” association.
Only the German occupation during the Second World War interrupted this commemoration. “Even during the health crisis, a bugler came alone, surrounded by the police, to celebrate the Last Post,” continues the president of the association.
For eternity ?
“The goal is not to forget: we have done the calculation, if we count one “Last Post” per fallen soldier, that takes us up to 2550,” underlines Benoit Mottrie, who celebrated the 33,000th ceremony at the end of September.
After more hollow decades, the tradition is today more vibrant than ever, “particularly since the arrival in 1985 of Pope John Paul II which attracted media from all over the world”. “The “Last Post” is also a lesson for the younger generation, a way of showing what happens when we cannot agree around the table,” continues the chairman, referring to the conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East.
On November 11, the commemoration will take place twice, and the 11 a.m. commemoration will be broadcast on Flemish public television and on the big screen. Then the next day and the day after that… For eternity? It’s written in the statutes.
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