File:Menin Gate (19669151722).jpg

The Menin Gate Memorial to the Missing, a war memorial in Ypres, Belgium, was unveiled on 24 July 1927. The Menin Gate is one of four memorials to the missing in Belgian Flanders which cover the area known as the Ypres Salient. The Salient stretched from Langemarck in the north to the northern edge in Ploegsteert Wood in the south, but it varied in area and shape throughout the war. Located at the eastern exit of the town, the gate marks the starting point for one of the roads out of the town that led Allied soldiers to the Front Line.

The Menin Gate honours casualties from the forces of New Zealand, Australia, Canada, India, South Africa and United Kingdom who died in the Salient. In the case of United Kingdom casualties, only those prior 16 August 1917 (with some exceptions) are engraved in the Hall of Memory. United Kingdom and New Zealand servicemen who died after that date are named on the memorial at Tyne Cot, a site which marks the furthest point reached by Commonwealth forces in Belgium until nearly the end of the war. New Zealand casualties that died prior to 16 August 1917 are commemorated on memorials at Buttes New British Cemetery and Messines Ridge British Cemetery.

The memorial was designed by Sir Reginald Blomfield, and built and maintained by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission. The inscription on the inside of the archway that leads into the Hall of Memory says: "Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam – Here are recorded names of officers and men who fell in Ypres Salient, but to whom the fortune of war denied the known and honoured burial given to their comrades in death". The Latin phrase means 'To the greater glory of God'. Both this inscription, and the main overhead inscription on both the east- and west-facing facades of the arch, were composed by Rudyard Kipling.

Since 1928, a group of volunteer firemen have sounded The Last Post, every evening at 8pm under the Menin Gate. Only the German occupation during the Second World War forced the bugles to fall silent - but even then, the ceremony was continued in Britain at the Brookwood cemetery. On the very evening that Polish forces liberated Ypres, the bugles once again re-started their salute. On 9 July 2015, the 30,000th rendition of the Last Post was played. This photograph shows the inscription to the New Zealand soldiers inside the Menin Gate, and comes from a file created by the Department of Internal Affairs.

Archives Reference: IA1 W2578 Box 46 32/3/148 (R10764202)