Transcript for the video: The Gathering of the Soil – Flanders Memorial Garden
Andrew Wallis, Curator of the Guards Museum in London: The concept was borne to create a
memorial garden, and what could be more fitting than to have a memorial garden that celebrates
and commemorates the centenary of the outbreak of the Great War.
[Guard shouts]
Soil from the 70 battlefields in Flanders where guardsmen fought and died, for the first time ever the
Commonwealth War Graves Commission have allowed us to actually remove soil from the
battlefields.
During the course of the summer, well over a thousand school children, British and Belgian school
children, have been inivolved in gathering the soil from the 70 battlefields. Representatives of those
children will be at the Menin Gate ceremony in the presence of the Duke of Edinburgh and Prince
Laurent of the Belgians. Those children will help load that soil on to the King’s Troop Royal Horse
Artillery gun carriage for its journey back to London.
550,000 soldiers perished on the battlefields of Flanders alone and it kind of leaves a duty of care on
us to lead better lives because of the sacrifices those guys made.