Shropshire firefighters in Menin Gate Tribute
Shropshire firefighters joined colleagues from around the world to commemorate the 30,000th sounding of the Last Post at Belgium’s Menin Gate in honour of the missing war dead in WW1.
Firefighters at Wellington and Shrewsbury fire stations stood to attention as two county buglers played the Last Post at 7pm – the same time as firefighters have sounded the tribute every day since 1928 at the Ypres memorial.
Watch Manager Mark Weaver said: “Here at Wellington Fire Station a bugler will sound the Last Post as we remember those WW1 soldiers who have fallen and say to them: "You will never be forgotten.”
Supported by members of the British Legion and watched by members of the Shropshire public, the poignant rendition was played at Wellington by ex 5th Battalion Light Infantry soldier Mark Douglas, now an Army reservist who works as store manager at Network Telecom in Telford.
Mark, who regularly plays the Last Post at Army funerals, volunteered to sound the tribute after Wellington firefighters made an appeal for a bugler on Facebook.
In 1928, the local fire chief at Ypres pledged that the volunteer local fire brigade would provide buglers to perform the ceremony. They kept their promise and have sounded it every day since.
