The Menin Gate

The Menin Gate Memorial to the Missing at Ypres is the representative focal point for remembering those who died in Flanders during World War One.

The names of 54,896 soldiers of Britain and the Commonwealth who have no known grave are engraved on Portland stone panels in an arched memorial that is 36.5 metres long and 20 metres wide.

Designed by Sir Reginald Blomfield, one of four architects who directed the design of more than 1,200 Western Front cemeteries and memorials, the Menin Gate Memorial to the Missing was dedicated on Sunday July 24, 1917, by King Albert I of the Belgians, Field Marshall Lord Plumer of Messines and the French commander General Foch. The 80th anniversary of its dedication, pictured below, will be marked this year on July 8, coinciding with the international Passchendaele commemoration day at Tyne Cot.

The Menin Gate Memorial records the names of the missing in Flanders until August 16, 1917. From that date on the missing are recorded on the Tyne Cot Memorial where a further 35,000 names, including those of 1,166 New Zealanders, are inscribed. Eighty-six New Zealanders with no known grave are recorded on the Menin Gate, with a further 839 on the New Zealand Memorial to the Missing at Messines and 378 at Buttes New British Cemetery near Zonnebeke.

The site for the Memorial was selected because virtually all British and Commonwealth soldiers who fought on the Ypres Salient passed along the Menin Road or close to the eastern side of Ypres where the Memorial stands.

Since 1928 a local organisation, the Last Post Association, has, with the exception of a few months at the beginning and several years during World War Two, provided a daily Last Post ceremony as a tribute to those British and Commonwealth soldiers who lost their lives in Flanders.

Shortly before 8 pm each evening the road through the Menin Gate Memorial is closed to traffic and a short, moving service led by the buglers of the city's volunteer fire brigade takes place, generally with large numbers of visitors in attendance.

The New Zealanders and Australians traditionally hold a combined Anzac service at the Menin Gate on Anzac Day following the national services for the New Zealanders at Messines and the Australians at Tyne Cot.

Read more about the Last Post Association

(Photos: City of Ypres)