2016 Gallery

Chairman of the Ypres Last Post Committee with bugles

The Ceremony of the Last Post, in which firemen buglers play the Last Post under the Menin Gate at 8pm each night is, in its simplicity, one of the most moving acts of Remembrance in the world. Only on rare occasions is the ceremony other than open to all members of the public who wish to attend. The firemen are frequently asked to travel to other events to play, including trips overseas. Here from left to right is the Chairman of the Committee, Benoit Mottrie and the authors Mrs Valmai Holt and Major Tonie Holt who are holding silver bugles used in the 1920s. Date: 2016

© Holts Battlefield Collection / Mary Evans

Ypres Battlefield Markers and signs

Over the 40 years that we have been writing about these battlefields, there has been many attempts to signpost the places of interest. The earliest were the markers erected by the Ypres League shortly after the war ended, but these, like so many since, were not maintained and have disappeared. Ypres policy since 2015 has been that The Land is the Last Witness. In pursuit of this policy the opposing front lines have been marked by the planting of trees and three clear Touring Routes with explanatory boards set out. Nevertheless, there are still independant signs, of which these are examples. Date: 2016

© Holts Battlefield Collection / Mary Evans

Belgian Headstones Houthulst Belgian Military Cemetery

This War Cemetery is maintained by the War Graves Department of the Belgian MOD. It is on the edge of the Houthulst forest which Napoleon called he key to the Low Countries. In his Memoirs the Prince of Wales tells of an incident in 1917 in a dugout near the forest, where he crouched for an hour with the Welsh Guards while a French battery shelled us enthusiastlcally in the belief that we were the enemy. The foremost headstone is that of an unknown soldier who died for his country. Date: 2016

© Holts Battlefield Collection / Mary Evans