Thursday, March 27, 2014

More Details about the Herts Regiment War Memorial

The following comes from the HertsatWar newsletter:


We are incredibly proud to announce that our plans to create the first and only memorial to the Hertfordshire Regiment in the Great War on the Western Front have now been approved by the Belgian Government with a location and date agreed for the placement of this unique memorial.
St Julien, 1917


The Hertfordshire Regiment lost almost 1,000 officers and men throughout the course of the Great War, many of whom were natives of the county they so bravely represented. The single worst day for the ‘Herts Guards’ (as they were affectionately known) was their ill-fated attack at St Julien near Ypres, in a battle that today we know as ‘Passchendaele’. On 31st July 1917, the Herts attacked at around 10am with 620 men, and two hours later less than 100 returned. Every major town and village in Hertfordshire lost a man in the attack that day, some lost many more.

Site of planned memorial at Steenbeke
The planned memorial will stand on the site that the attack commenced, on the river Steenbeke on the outskirts of St Julien, and will not only commemorate those who fell that day, but all of those who fought with the Herts Guards throughout the Great War. The memorial will be unveiled on 31st July 2017, exactly 100 years to the day that the attack took place, in a ceremony involving descendants of those men who fought on that ground a century earlier.

In order to place this monument to our county’s fallen, we must call upon the generosity and spirit of remembrance of today’s Hertfordshire Residents. We aim to raise £5000 to build and dedicate the memorial and we are kickstarting this campaign with a huge Quiz Night on Friday 9th May 2014, to be held at Stevenage F.C’s Broadhall Suite. The event will be a ticket only quiz and raffle evening with all funds raised going towards our £5000 memorial target.

For tickets and further details please email heather@hertsatwar.co.uk and to find out more about the memorial visit www.hertsatwar.co.uk/memorial.

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