McClay attends 30,000th Last Post in Belgium

  • Todd McClay
Foreign Affairs

Associate Minister of Foreign Affairs Todd McClay has represented New Zealand at the 30,000th Last Post ceremony at the Menin Gate, in Belgium.

Every night since 1928, the Last Post - the traditional final salute to the fallen - is played by volunteer buglers in Ypres.  They do this to honour the memory of those soldiers of the former British Empire and its allies, who died in the Ypres Salient during the First World War. It is the intention of the Last Post Association to maintain this daily act of homage in perpetuity.

This year, there was a special commemorative ceremony at Menin Gate when the Last Post sounded for the 30,000th time.

“We regularly commemorate New Zealand losses at the Menin Gate and have a close relationship with the Last Post Association,” Minister McClay says. 

“While the names of our missing are on other New Zealand Memorials, the Menin Gate and the daily last post service there have come to represent a daily public commemoration of all those lost in Belgium during WW1.

“As we are remembering the centenary of the First World War and its impact on New Zealand, I was pleased to represent New Zealand and those Kiwis who fought and died on Belgian soil, at this special remembrance”.

Notes:

  1. The Last Post was a bugle call played in the British Army (and in the armies of many other lands) to mark the end of the day's labours and the onset of the night's rest. In the context of the Last Post ceremony (and in the broader context of remembrance), it has come to represent a final farewell to the fallen at the end of their earthly labours and at the onset of their eternal rest.
  2. There are New Zealand Memorials to the Missing at Messines Ridge Cemetery, Buttes New British Cemetery, and Tyne Cot Cemetery.
  3. In New Zealand, a Last Post ceremony is being conducted daily from 5pm at Pukeahu every evening until 11 November 2018, beside the Tomb of the Unknown Warrior. It takes the form of The Ode recited in Te Reo and English, the playing of Last Post, the observation of a minute’s silence and then the playing of Reveille. People are encouraged to lay personal or community floral tributes.