Today, with the weather perfect, we welcomed the Mayor of Woking, Cllr Rob Leach and a delegation from the Last Post Association. Cllr Leach is the 53rd, and final Mayor representing Woking as the local authority will be abolished next March.
The delegation from the Last Post Association included Mr Carl Denys and two buglers, Jan Callemein and Bava Ketels. This was the first official delegation from the LPA since 1985 and we were grateful for their attendance.
We remembered Soldaat 2 KL Mathieu Alois Callot of the Belgian Army 2 Karabiniers 2/1 (5 Cie). Soldaat Callot was injured and was taken to a hospital initially in Folkstone. He was subsequently moved to Hyland’s Hospital in Chelmsford before eventually being moved to Saint Olave’s Infirmary, a former workhouse in Southwark, London.
He died in Saint Olave’s on July 11th, 1916 which was his 26th birthday. Unusually, he is the only Belgian casualty from the First World War buried in the Belgian Plot in Brookwood Military Cemetery.
Extensive research by our historian Paul McCue is included here and is well worth the time reading to learn fully about Soldaat Callot. The document includes the poem ‘ The Grave Digger’ by Emile Verhaeren, 1855 – 1916, a Belgian refugee living in South Wales in 1914. By 1916 he was in France, but died tragically in November when he fell under a train that he was attempting to board.
Photos from before and during the ceremony.
Neither of our usual standard bearers were available for this ceremony. The Union Flag was static in its stand, and Eddie Jones very kindly stood in to parade the BLP Standard in place of his usual Artist’s Rifles standard.
Our usual bugler, Mrs Ruth Moore attended and helped keep timing during the Last Post. Rob Bennett said the thought-provoking wise words.
A young student from Gordon’s School who had recently performed at the Menin Gate performed the Lament for us and the Kohima Epitaph was read out by an Explorer Scout from Woking District.
The Exhortation today was said by our Senior Standard Bearer Tom Milne’s daughter who is visiting from Australia.
The Last Post Association very graciously presented our Chairman, Kevin Davis, and Historian Paul McCue with a stunning book each that commemorates the 30,000th edition of the Last Post at the Menin Gate on 9th July 2015. A small delegation of five Brookwood Last Post Association members attended that ceremony.
After the ceremony and necessary photographs, we retired to the Trench Experience with our guests for much needed refreshments.
A special thank you to Mike Hillman for documenting today’s ceremony in photograph form and also to Alan Meeks for filming and then editing the superb video that documented the Secret WW2 Learning Network ceremony at the Memorial to the Missing and the Brookwood Last Post ceremony. This video may be viewed by following this link and is really well worth watching.
Brookwood Last Post 