Frontline Walk – The Menin Gate
Brigadier (Ret’d) Robin Bacon, Chief of Staff ABF The Soldiers’ Charity:
On Saturday 8th October 2016, one hundred weary ‘Frontline Walkers’ marched proudly together through the town of Ypres to the famous Menin Gate, to complete our gruelling three-day,100km Charity trek across the fields and tracks of France and Belgium, following the 1914-1918 front line from the Somme to Ypres. After pausing to reflect on our incredible accomplishments and to take in the unique atmospherics of one of the most iconic war memorials in the world, we later regathered at the Gate for the daily 8 o’clock Last Post ceremony, which continues to serve as a poignant reminder of the terrible and turbulent years of the Great War.
Whilst waiting patiently amongst the growing crowds for the ceremony to begin, I was approached – as the senior representative of the Army’s National Charity – by the senior Belgian officiating officer to recite the Exhortation (from For the Fallen by Laurence Binyon 1914). I readily accepted his invitation and followed him centre-stage under the Gate. As a former Army officer, I am of course very familiar with the Last Post ceremony and the Exhortation, but was relieved when he passed me a little prompt card with the right words. So, I proudly took my place alongside the wreath bearers and the Ceremony commenced. As we stood rigidly to attention whilst the buglers played Last Post – and they did so extremely well – my eyes were fixed on the memorial wall opposite, with its tens of thousands of names of those who had fallen. I felt my throat constricting and the ‘goose bumps’ as the adrenalin kicked in, and concentrated hard on practising quietly enunciating and pitching the phrases. I knew that I needed to perform this magnificent tribute clearly, slowly, with the right pauses and with great dignity – and without a microphone – thankfully I can manage the necessary volume and the acoustics were astounding.
As the buglers played those final haunting notes of the Last Post, I stepped off alone across the open space and took up my place in the centre of the Gate, in front of a phalanx of standard bearers and surrounded by a sea of flashing cameras. I remembered to halt softly – no stamping of feet in such a special sacred place. It was eerily quiet as everyone respectfully waited in anticipation. I briefly glanced down at the prompt card, then looked up and launched into those poignant and moving words:
They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old;
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning,
We will remember them.
And then it was over. It was an indescribable feeling as I walked back to resume my place and then watched our three Frontline Walk wreath bearers proudly taking their turn to lay our Charity’s wreath. Reveille followed, the standard bearers marched off and it was all over. I was so proud to be able to represent The Soldiers’ Charity, proud to represent all our Frontline Walk colleagues (not just from 2016 but from 2014 and 2015), proud to be British and incredibly proud of the British Army and all those who have served. It was undoubtedly one of the most special and emotionally moving minutes of my military life; I shall never ever forget it; and I will be eternally grateful to our wonderful historian Steve Roberts for so kindly volunteering me at very short notice for this incredibly special and much-coveted role.
