How does Ypres soil, Queen Mary 2 and the Guard Museum come together?

The Queen Mary 2 is renowned for carrying many special celebrities, icons and even presidents and deputy prime ministers, but next week will see the liner carry something even more important – the final sandbag from the First World War cemeteries in Belgium, which will be used to create a Flanders Field Memorial Garden at the Guards Museum in London.

Previously soil from the battlefield cemeteries has never been allowed to leave by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission. In total 70 bags of soil have been gathered by British and Belgian school children during the summer of 2013 and over 1,000 children from 140 schools took part. These were then all at a ceremony at the Menin Gate on the 11th November 2013, along with His Royal Highness Duke of Edinburgh and also His Royal Highness Prince Laurent of the Belgians. The sandbags then went on journey which took place on a frigate from Belgium to the Thames when the sandbags were then moved on to a King’s Troop RHA gun carriage with a mounted escort accompanying it to its final resting place in Wellington Barracks. Her Majesty The Queen will open the garden in November.

The last remaining sandbag will be taken from Ypres Cemetery and taken to the Menin Gate where it will then be presented to Captain Kevin Oprey, Master of Queen Mary 2, prior to being taken aboard the ship in Zeebrugge on 5 October. The sandbag will then be placed on display for all passengers and crew to view. There will also be a commemorative dinner on board the Queen Mary 2 on the 6th October and Andrew Wallis, Curator of the Guards Museum, will give a lecture about this project. 

On the 8th October the Queen Mary 2 will arrive back into Southampton and be saluted by fireboats on arrival in Southampton, where Captain Kevin Oprey will then present the sandbag to the Mayor of Southampton who is also Admiral of the Port. Soldiers, the Padre and military vehicles from 17 PM Regiment will welcome the sandbag home. They will then take charge of this special cargo and will progress it through the City of Southampton to the Civic Hall where it will remain overnight, and on display to the public, before its final journey in Southampton the next day: to Southampton Central station where it will take the 1300 hours departure to London Waterloo. On arrival there the sandbag will be taken to its final resting place at the Guards Museum and the Memorial.

Earlier this year you may recall I visited Ypres and saw first hand the cemeteries of Tyne Cot Cemetery (the British Cemetery) , the Langemark German Cemetery, and we also had the opportunity to see the daily evening Last Post Ceremony at Menin Gate. Every evening at 8pm the Bugle players can be heard/seen and poppy wreaths are laid to commemorate the fallen soldiers who fought for their countries in World War 1. We also got to visit the Flanders field Museum whilst we were there. The whole experience was very moving and I can image the experience on board the Queen Mary 2 will also be very poignant.