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A Walk Along the Western Front
6 November 2023
Every year on 11 November, huge crowds gather under the Menin Gate in Ypres to hear the Last Post played in memory of those who died in the First World War. But most people do not stray far beyond the walls of the ancient Flemish town. If they did, they would find an astonishing number of cemeteries
Ypres Marches On
28 September 2022
On a visit to the Flemish city of Ypres, Derek Blyth discovers a museum dedicated to the horror of war, a beer brewed in an underground fortification and a nightly ceremony that might go on for ever.
How Belgium Helped Shape the British Identity
12 August 2022
From Waterloo to the Westhoek, the Belgian soil is full of British corpses. Professor of English Literature and Culture Marysa Demoor has explored the very close links between the two nations; links that could even be considered decisive in the development of British identity. The relationship was n
How Missing Soldiers Regain Their Identity
22 April 2022
The bodies of almost a hundred thousand soldiers who died in Belgium’s Westhoek region during the First World War have never been found. Their mortal remains still lie hidden in the Flemish clay. The exhibition Missing at the Front. Unearthing Names in the In Flanders Fields Museum shows how some
The Long Farewell
12 November 2020
There is nothing like this anywhere in the world. Every evening just before 8pm, the traffic is halted on Menenstraat in the West Flemish city Ypres. A group of local volunteer firemen then raise their bugles to play the Last Post below the Menin Gate war memorial.
When the Last German Kaiser Turned Woodcutter in the Netherlands
12 May 2020
After the German defeat in World War I, Emperor Wilhelm II sought and got asylum in the neutral Netherlands. On 15 May 1920, he settled in Huis Doorn (House Doorn) near Utrecht, an estate with a lavishly furnished country house, where he would live with his family until his death in 1941. Today, the
How Huib Hoste Fought for a Modernist Rebuilding of the Westhoek
15 April 2020
After the First World War, West Flanders’s Westhoek looked like a moonscape, littered with craters and munition. But rebuilding started almost immediately after the last shots. Flemish architect Huib Hoste played a unique role in this. Under the influence of his Dutch colleagues, he advocated a ne
The Lost Cemeteries of 1917
20 January 2020
Anyone who wants to see the extent of the horror of the First World War in Flanders should visit the enormous Tyne Cot Cemetery. Yet the small cemeteries in and around Ypres may offer a more unique way of understanding the war.
1917, a Crucial Year in Flanders Fields
8 January 2020
If we consider the history of the First World War from the perspective of its enduring legacy, we see that 1917 was certainly a crucial year, if not the most crucial year of all. After almost three years of heavy fighting, Europe was already significantly weakened and the new future world powers wer
Asians on the Western Front: The Forgotten Soldiers of World War I
5 November 2019
About a quarter of a million Asians were present on and near the front in Belgium and Northern France during the First World War. What they saw, and how they experienced the war not only bolstered their self-esteem but also jeopardised the idea that western civilisation was the leading light to foll
Māori Monument To Be Unveiled Near Memorial Museum Passchendaele
16 April 2019
On Anzac Day (25 April), a new 8-metre-tall memorial honouring the role of New Zealand’s Māori and other service people in the First World War will be unveiled in the Passchendaele Memorial Park, next to the Memorial Museum Passchendaele 1917 in Zonnebeke.
