True Blue History - The Last Post Association

True Blue Conversations Podcast

During his recent visit to the battlefields of the Western Front, Adam visited the medieval town of Ypres (modern day Ieper), and sat down with the chairman of the Last Post Association, Benoit Mottrie.

The Last Post Association is an independent voluntary, non-profit organisation who founded the Last Post Ceremony back in 1928. It is still responsible for this unique daily act of homage to this very day.

The mission of the Last Post Association is to honour and remember the soldiers of the British Empire who gave their lives during the Great War. The daily Last Post Ceremony seeks to express the lasting gratitude which we all owe to the men who fought and fell for the restoration of peace, and the independence of Belgium.

Every evening just before 8pm, the local Police halt the traffic passing through the Menin Gate to the east of the town centre. For a brief moment the modern world is brought to a stop, as the solemn Last Post Ceremony allows us to reflect on the men who passed through this gate on their way to the deadly battlefields of the Ypres Salient.

The cost of war is all too evident as we stand under the Menin Gate where 54,000 names to the missing are recorded. Men who have not had the honour of a proper military burial. No grave for family to visit and tend. We pause and remember their sacrifice.

In the words of Field Marshal Plumber, pronounced during the unveiling of the monument in July 1927 “ HE is not missing, he is here”.

These men still lie in Flanders Fields. We owe it to them to remember their ultimate sacrifice they made for our freedom. Lest we forget.

Presenter: Adam Blum

Guest: Benoit Mottrie

Editor: Kyle Watkins

Investigative Consultant: Adam Holloway