*Last Post Service

Members of the FFFAIF who will be in the Ieper area on Monday 4 May 2009 are invited to take part in the Last Post Ceremony at Menin Gate – where a wreath will be laid on behalf of the Association.

Photo: The Last Post Buglers, Menin Gate Ieper [Anny DeDecker]

Details of the service can be found on The Last Post Association website by clicking here. Their website describes the service as taking place:
Every evening since 1928, at precisely eight o’clock, the Last Post – the traditional salute to the fallen warrior – has been played under the Menin Gate Memorial in Ieper, Belgium.
This daily tribute – performed by a team of local buglers – serves to honour the memory of the soldiers of the British Empire, who fought and died in the immortal Ypres Salient during the First World War.
It is the aim of the Last Post Association to maintain this ceremony in perpetuity.

The 27,688th Last Post Ceremony will take place in Ieper tonight, 11 March 2009.

Photo: FFFAIF Secretary Chris Munro reciting The Ode at Menin Gate, April 2008 [Johan Durnez]

If you need more details about the FFFAIF wreath laying ceremony at the Menin Gate please contact FFFAIF Secretary Chris Munro at projectfffaif@yahoo.com.au

Look forward to seeing you at The Menin Gate at 19:30 on 4 May 2009

*****

The Families and Friends of the First AIF thanks the Australian, UK and French governments for affording Australian and British soldiers – presently buried in mass graves at Pheasant Wood – dignified individual reburials in a new CWGC cemetery at Fromelles, and applauds Minister Snowdon and his British counterpart, Parliamentary Under–Secretary of State for Defence and Minister for Veterans, Kevan Jones MP, for their joint decision to DNA test the remains at exhumation and use every reasonable method to attempt identification of each soldier.