I have just returned from the most wonderful visit to Belgium, accompanying students from the school I where I used to teach and where I am currently serving as a governor (I'm also an 'old girl'!) The school's Senior Choir - girls from Years 9 to 13 - spent four days performing, sampling the culinary delights of Bruges and enjoying some lovely summer weather.
Normally, such a visit would not warrant a 'Merry Shrew' mention, but the crowning moment of the week was their contribution to the Menin Gate Last Post ceremony on Wednesday July 9th which was one of the most memorable and poignant experiences I've ever had.
I've posted before about the Bensonian memorial window in what is now the Swan's upstairs foyer -The Merry Shrews of Venice: We few... Although, as far as I have been able to discover, none of the memorialised Bensonians are on the walls at the Menin Gate, I ran through their names in my head during the one minute silence and then thought of the other members of the Company who had served in both the military and in support roles. This followed the buglers' Last Post and the 'Exhortation' from Binyon's "For the Fallen", a silence filled with birdsong in the summer evening sun, before the first notes of the choir singing 'Amazing Grace' filled the space.
Afterwards, the girls explored the monument in more detail, many visibly moved as people came over to recount their reasons for being there and the stories of some of those names.
The Menin Gate Last Post was something which has long been on my 'bucket list' and is an experience I will never forget. I'm already plotting and planning how I can return to explore more of the Flanders and French WWI sites.
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