GP90 Post event (photos below)
To view this historical parade there are various videos - some on a Facebook page for the Cumbria coach: GP90 Coach 930* and also NewtonNewton (Flagmakers) eg Link to Forces TV broadcast
Link to TRBL Oficial GP90 photos - (you don't have to log in, select one and scroll through others; be patient whilst downloading).
*(Coach 930 started from Carlisle at 5.15am on Sunday 5 August then picked up at Kendal, a couple of other pick ups afterwards e.g. Crewe. Our excellent tour guide was David Price and two Irving's of Carlisle coach drivers Kim & Paul).
A decade after the end of WW1, the British Legion (as it was then known) organised for veterans and war widows to visit the battlefields of the Somme and Ypres before marching to the Menin Gate in Ypres on 8th August 1928.
Exactly 90 years later, thousands of Legion representatives recreated the 1928 Battlefields Pilgrimage and visited the same battlefields and then, on 8th August 2018, paraded their branch standard and a wreath along the same route to the Menin Gate for the One Hundred Days ceremony to commemorate the last 100 days of WW1 and represented an entire generation that served while defending their country.
Thirteen RBL Branches were represented from the County on this incredible pilgrimage: Bransty, Brampton, Carlisle and Stanwix, Egremont, Harrington, Kendal, Penrith, Seaton, Sedbergh, Tebay, Wathbrow, Windermere and Cumberland & Westmorland. Each branch was represented by a Standard Bearer and a Wreath Layer. They joined over 2200 representatives from other national and international Branches.
The tour of the battlefields included visiting the Somme and Passchendaele. The Standards of Ulverston and Bransty were raised at Thiepval and Delville Woods [South African] memorials, the Last Post was played by the Kendal Branch bugler. A very fitting and poignant tribute to the fallen of Cumberland and Westmorland.
Then, on 8th August 2018, members of the public come and gathered in Ypres Market Square as spectators to watch the parade and the One Hundred Days ceremony. Large screens were provided in the Market Square to view the ceremony. Over 1100 standard bearers paraded through Ypres’ streets & Market Square, as well as over 1100 wreath layers, to the Menin Gate.
A service was conducted at the Menin Gate, including an address from the Bishop of Carlisle and the Archbishop of York.
The Queen’s message to us ended: “As you stand together at the Menin Gate and in Flanders, it is my sincere hope that the ceremony provides a thought provoking opportunity to assist in your own acts of Remembrance”.
A petal fall added a very moving tribute during the Last Post and two minute silence.
The 1100 wreaths were then laid at the Menin Gate.
The parade then returned through Ypres to the Market Square, applauded by the 1000s of spectators.
Following the ceremony, there was an afternoon of exhibitions and musical performances, including The Band of Her Majesty's Royal Marines Scotland, The Central Band of The Royal British Legion and The London Welsh Male Voice Choir.
Judith Reay, Cumberland & Westmorland Wreath Layer says
“I feel totally overwhelmed and humbled by the whole experience.
Making this pilgrimage to the battlefields highlights the sacrifice of millions of servicemen and women and the great debt we owe each and every one of them.
I feel honoured to have been part of this once in a lifetime event.”
Coach 930 Passengers
Bransty and Ulverston Standards dipped for Last Post at Thiepval
Bransty, Ulverston and South Africa Standards dipped for the Last Post at Deville Wood memorial in Belgium
Menin Gate 1,100+ Wreaths Displayed (individual wreaths below)
The following photos of individual wreaths on display at the Menin Gate were painstakingly taken by Ypres Branch TRBL:
Grange-Over-Sands
Kendal
Sedbergh
Tebay
Ulverston
Windermere
As we disembarked Coach 930 for the GP90 parade on 8 August 2018 Judith Reay spotted a single poppy growing so we surrounded it with many of our wreaths.
Great Pilgrimage 90 Itinerary
Version 3 – 4 July 2017
Itinerary
As a reminder, attendees will take part in a full two-day programme of visits to battlefield memorial sites, trenches and cemeteries, as well the parade on 8 August to the Menin Gate.
Each branch will bring with them a wreath containing a Remembrance message, ideally written by their community e.g. the children of a local school. These will be collected as the parade marches to the Menin Gate, and subsequently built into a display within the Commonwealth War Graves Commission grounds that surround the memorial, for later viewing by the general public.
There will be a national commemorative Service event and wreath-laying by VIPs at the Menin Gate. This will be led by the Last Post Association – the body founded in 1928 that began the Last Post Ceremony and is still responsible for the daily commemoration at the memorial.
The commemorative event will be shown on large screens in the Great Square, and will be followed by a March Past of the entire contingent of 2,000 or more Legion branches and Standards. The March Past will be observed by civic and military guests from the UK, Commonwealth and countries of Northern Europe.
Following the parade, each of those who participated will join with the spectators in the Great Square to take part in an afternoon of comradeship – including an exhibition visit and a performance from a band.
Attendees will travel to and from the tour in coaches that will pick up and drop off at nearly 200 designated pick-up points across the UK. It is hoped that as participants travel, they will be supported by a battlefield tour guide who will introduce video and other material with the most up-to-date details about GP90, plus information about the wider work of the Legion today.
