The First World War saw the destruction of a staggering 15 million young men, mainly from Europe but also from wider afield.
It also saw the introduction trench warfare and sophisticated equipment with machine guns, tanks and planes entering the killing fields. War suddenly became high tech.
Before the world could recover from the enormity of this horror it was plunged again into global conflict of the Second World War with the loss of further millions of civilian lives through the bombing of whole cities, culminating with the dropping of the first hydrogen/nuclear bomb over Japan.
Our healing work in Northern France and Belgium will honour all those lives lost to war and conflict in these World Wars and wars being fought today such as in Afghanistan.
We will post further details concerning our mission to this area shortly. But wherever you are in the world, please attune with us during this day, whenever and wherever you can. On our site you will find our suggested way to channel unconditional love in the universal heart. You are a fundamental part of this process. This is a collective healing – a sharing of energy, love, global consciousness.
There are many other ways you can participate if you can’t come with us. Why not plant a tree or a flower? Hold a group vigil or contemplate individually in meditation and prayer?
Our trip will include a visit to some of the incredible memorials and cemeteries, both on battle fields and in key towns, the huge cemetery at Tyne Cot, and the Menin Gate in Ypres town, where every evening at 8pm the Last Post is sounded by local fire brigade buglers in honour of those who lost their lives.
http://www.greatwar.co.uk/events/menin-gate-last-post-ceremony.htm
The Third battle of Ypres, known forever as Passchendaele 1917, was one of the great conflicts of the First World War, and possibly of any war. A hundred days of heavy fighting resulted in over half a million Allied casualties for the gain of only a few miles. Not only human life brutally lost but 800,000 horses and 40,000 dogs were also slaughtered.The dead soldiers comprised mainly British, Australian, Canadian, New Zealand and South African troops and on the great memorial wall at Tyne Cot Cemetery are inscribed the names of 35,000 British and New Zealand dead who fell at Passchendaele.
Many of the missing are buried unnamed in military cemeteries known simply as "A Soldier of the Great War" or "Known unto God", but most lie still undiscovered in the Flanders poppy fields.
The largest British war cemetery in the world, Tyne Cot has 11,908 graves registered. The sheer number makes it sometimes impersonal & difficult to absorb and comprehend. Of this total 70% are unknown. On the wall at the back of the cemetery are the names of 34,927 soldiers who have no known grave and died from August 1917 to the end of the war - a continuation of the names inscribed on the Menin Gate.
The Menin Gate is probably the most visited memorial commemorating the Western Front. Tens of thousands of young men would have marched beneath it, then as a gap in the town’s ramparts, on the Path to certain death.
It is why it is now on our Path for HOPE.
ITINERARY:
SATURDAY
- arrive at Ypres around 12.30 (local time)
- Walk the Hooge Battlefields
- visit Tyne Cot Commonwealth War graves.... largest in the World
- Langermark German Cemetery
- Walk Hill 60 scenes of terrible fighting and mining as portrayed in the book Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks
- Museum in Ypres
- Early dinner in Ypres town centre
- Last post ceremony at the iconic Menin Gate – 8pm (7pm GMT) – JOIN US IN A GLOBAL ATTUNEMENT
- depart for our Hotel in Lille around 30min drive
SUNDAY
- Visit the new Cemetery at Fromelles .. .hear the story of finding and identifying thousands of British and Australian soldiers
- Walk the wood at Ploogstreet, scene of the Christmas truce during Christmas 1914
- Walk Messine Ridge scene of the great explosions
- Visit Talbot House the magical spiritual centre for the troops during the war – AGAIN JOIN US IN A GLOBAL ATTUNEMENT AT 3pm (2pm GMT)
- Hear the story of Noel Chavasse our most decorated serviceman 2 Victoria Crosses and never fired a shot!!
- UK team return at 8pm
LAST POST AT MENIN GATE – SITE OF OUR GLOBAL ATTUNEMENT SATURDAY OCTOBER 22 AT 7pm GMT
Just before 8 o'clock the Buglers stand ready. The traffic is stopped from passing through the Gate and the Buglers then make their way to stand in the centre of the Hall of Memory at the eastern entrance of the Menin Gate Memorial.
For a few moments the noise of traffic ceases and a stillness descends over the memorial. At exactly 20:00 hours up to six members of the regular buglers from the local volunteer Fire Brigade step into the roadway under the memorial arch. They play Last Post, followed by a short silence and then play Reveille.
On some occasions the ceremony may be extended. Visiting individuals and groups may lay a wreath and there may be music by bands, choirs, orchestras, or a parade by Standards and military personnel.
Some evenings, particularly in summer, there are large crowds of visitors. At other times, on a weekday or in winter, the pavements under the memorial can be empty - though that is becoming rare now. In any case, every evening the busy road through the memorial is closed to traffic shortly before the ceremony.
The Last Post Ceremony has become part of the daily life in Ieper (Ypres) and the local people are proud of this simple but moving tribute to the courage and self-sacrifice of those who fell in defence of their town.
In 1928, a year after the inauguration of the Menin Gate Memorial, a number of prominent citizens in Ypres decided that some way should be found to express the gratitude of the Belgian nation towards those who had died for its freedom and independence.
The idea of the daily sounding of the Last Post - the traditional salute to the fallen warrior - was that of the Superintendant of the Ypres Police, Mr P Vandenbraambussche. The Menin Gate Memorial on the east side of Ypres was thought to be the most appropriate location for the ceremony. Originally this was the location of the old city gate leading to the Ypres Salient battlefields and The Menin Road, through which so many British and Commonwealth troops had passed on their way to the Allied front line.
The privilege of playing Last Post was given to buglers of the local volunteer Fire Brigade. The first sounding of Last Post took place on 1st July 1928 and a daily ceremony was carried on for about four months. The ceremony was reinstated in the spring of 1929 and the Last Post Committee (now called the Last Post Association) was established. Four silver bugles were donated to the Last Post Committee by the Brussels and Antwerp Branches of the Royal British Legion.
From 11th November, 1929 the Last Post has been sounded at the Menin Gate Memorial every night and in all weathers. The only exception to this was during the four years of the German occupation of Ypres from 20th May 1940 to 6th September 1944. The daily ceremony was instead continued in England 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. Bullet marks can still be seen on the memorial from that time.
When the Last Post returned to Ieper (Ypres) after the Second World War the Brookwood Last Post Association (under Colonel McKay) continued and still continues to sound the Last Post at Brookwood Military Cemetery on the first Sunday of the month at 16.00 hours GMT (UTC). The Brookwood Last Post Association makes an annual pilgrimage to Ieper and the Ypres Salient around the month of April.
TALBOT HOUSE – SPIRITUAL CENTRE OF REST - SITE OF OUR GLOBAL ATTUNEMENT SUNDAY OCTOBER 23 AT 2pm GMT
http://www.talbothouse.be/en/index.php
During the First World War, Poperinge was situated a few kilometres behind the turmoil of battle on the Ypres Salient. The British army commandeered the quiet little town to accommodate the throbbing heartbeat of its war machine. Very quickly, Poperinge became a 24-hour-a-day metropolis; in 1917 approximately 250,000 men were billeted in the area...
On the 11th December, 1915, in the centre of this lively metropolis, Chaplain Philip Clayton opened a "soldiers' house". The large home of the Coevoet family was transformed into "Every Man's Club", where all soldiers were welcome, regardless of rank.
On the suggestion of Colonel Reginald May, and despite the protest of the senior army chaplain Neville Talbot, the House was named 'Talbot House'. The name commemorates Gilbert Talbot, Neville's younger brother, who was killed in action on the 30th July, 1915. Gilbert became the symbol of the sacrifice of a 'golden generation' of young men.
For three years, the 'Tommy' found in Talbot House an alternative for the 'debauched' recreational life of the town. The initials of Talbot House became Toc H in the WWI phonetic alphabet. For hundreds of thousands, this site became 'a home from home', where they found a little bit of humanity, rest and peace.
Late 1918, when the role of Talbot House had come to an end, Chaplain Tubby Clayton saw himself faced with the unenviable task of clearing out the House. After three busy years, a wide range of bits and pieces had been accumulated for the daily running of the House: furniture, pianos, household goods, chessboards…. The padre’s concern was a familiar one: what to chuck out and what to take back to Blighty? So, most of the stuff was disposed of, there and then. Even the billiards table - however significant this piece would have been today - simply had to go. Anything that was too big or too heavy was abandoned.
However, one collection would escape the clear-out: the interior of the Chapel was sent to London, and temporarily displayed in the crypt of All Hallows-by-the-Tower. From the concise guidebook Clayton compiled for its visitors, we learn why precisely these objects had to be taken home, and why they would return to Poperinge in 1929.
"This inventory of Chapel ornaments is, perhaps, a tale of little worth in the judgement of one who is accustomed to the lavish elegancies of a home parish. Yet, when you remember how far a little beauty went amid such surroundings as ours, you will bear with me."
The objects collected for the Upper Room in Talbot House testify of a yearning for beauty. But there’s more. "Around our altar gradually were gathered many memorial gifts, and many still more sacred associations," Clayton continues. Tens of objects indeed carry the names - often quite literally - of men who visited the House as friends, but who eventually perished. How ever could anyone throw away such mementoes?
This exhibition - "the Names of Things" - provides a new inventory of the Upper Room, though this time with a deeper meaning. The result comes in the shape of a "Memorial Book" in which objects, names and places are valued for their association. “And then,” the padre concludes, “the atmosphere and the sense of brotherhood in this Upper Room will be as real to-day as ever."
