Associate Minister of Foreign Affairs Todd McClay has represented New Zealand at the 30,000th Last Post ceremony at the Menin Gate, in Belgium.
“We regularly commemorate New Zealand losses at the Menin Gate and have a close relationship with the Last Post Association,” Minister McClay commented “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”.
Mr. McClay explained that 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. It should be noted that this year, there was a special commemorative ceremony at Menin Gate when the Last Post sounded for the 30,000th time.