Ypres Area – Part 2 – April 2025

Essex Farm was an Advanced Dressing Station (ADS) during WWI, from April 1915 until August 1917. It is also the name of a wartime cemetery as you can tell by the haphazard layout of the graves. Cemeteries planned are usually laid out in a certain way. There are 1,205 burials and approximately 103 unidentified. It is also where Lieutenant-Colonel John McCrae of the Canadian Army Medical Corps wrote the poem ‘ In Flanders Fields’ in May 1915. One of his best friends died amongst the poppies which inspired him to write this poem. John McCrae died in 1918 from complications of pneumonia.

We ended our time in this area by going into Ypres and spent the afternoon walking around the town, going for a beer tasting and then that evening we attended a service at the Menin Gate. We walked past a beautiful building called the Cloth Hall which is a medieval commercial building erected between 1200 and 1304. During the WWI, this building as well as most of Ypres, was almost destroyed by artillery fire. When the war ended, they did a lot of rebuilding.

We went to St Martin’s Cathedral, a beautiful cathedral. We also walked to, and went inside, St George’s Church. This was a lovely small church and every seat had an embroidered pillow. These were called kneeler cushions for kneeling on during prayer. Many of them were embroidered with poppies or tributes to individuals or regiments. It was quite moving. 

The Menin Gate is on the road heading out of Ypres towards Menin. Thousands of troops went through this gate on their way to the front line. It commemorates those who were killed but have no known grave, it bears names of 55,000 soldiers including 6,000 Australians. The losses were huge so not all the names of the missing soldiers are on the gate.

We were fortunate enough to be able to stay for the Last Post, which they do EVERY evening under the arch. It was very moving, the townspeople, tourists, choirs all come together for the service along with volunteers on bugles. We had two men in our group who were a part of this evenings proceedings. One Australian Veteran, Bayne and one American Navy man, Gary, were picked to place wreaths. It was a very moving evening.

Next we go to the Battlefields of Somme………