Resources required

• Resource E: What does the Menin Gate look like?
• Resource F: Interpretations of the Menin Gate
• Resource G: The Menin Gate – Focus Questions
• Resource H: The Last Post Ceremony
• Resource J: Commemoration
• Resource M: Soldiers of the Commonwealth

 
Rationale and learning intentions

The focus of this enquiry is an investigation into the factors that shape the appearance of war memorials. It is important that pupils understand that memorials are carefully planned and can tell us a great deal about the attitudes and values of both the architect and society at the time. It is also crucial that pupils realise that interpretations of war memorials are rarely static. The Menin Gate and the Last Post Ceremony have meant different things to different people at different times in history. They also continue to shape the way that people today view the First World War.

What purpose should a war memorial serve? Pupils should use the Narrative and Resource M to explore in outline the debate that occurred at the end of the First World War about how best to commemorate the British and Commonwealth soldiers who died in the Ypres Salient.

Discuss

• what elements need to be included
• what style of design would be appropriate

Pupils should be encouraged to give their first impressions of the memorial

• what is their interpretation?
• what do they think it says about war?
• does it achieve it’s aim?

before they explore key features of the memorial in greater detail using Resource E.

Why is the purpose of the Menin Gate open to different interpretations? Pupils analyse why the Menin Gate has been interpreted differently. The starting point for this investigation should be an investigation into what the architect (Reginald Blomfield) and the Imperial War Graves Commission were trying to achieve.

• What was the original purpose of the Menin Gate?
• What factors shaped the appearance of the memorial?
• What does the Menin Gate tell us about the attitudes and values of the society that built it?
• This can be contrasted with ‘opposing’ interpretations (see for example Siegfried Sassoon’s description of the Menin Gate as a ‘sepulchre of crime’ -  (Resource F)

Resource G provides a set of focus questions, which allows the teacher to explore the reasons behind different interpretations of the Menin Gate and the way that memorials such as this shape the way that the war is remembered today

How does the Menin Gate compare to other remembrance sites and memorials?

Pupils can compare the Menin Gate to other British and non-British First World War memorials (Resource J). These could include:

• Tyne Cot Cemetery (near Ypres)
• Thiepval (the Memorial to the Missing on the Somme)
• The Cenotaph (London)
• The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier (in Westminster Abbey). 
• The German World War 1 cemetery at Langemark (near Ypres)
• The German World War 1 cemetery at Neuville St Vaast (near Vimy, France)

Pupils could compare the way in which the German war dead are commemorated at Langemarck to the way in which British soldiers are commemorated at Tyne Cot Cemetery and at the Menin Gate.

• What are the similarities?
• What differences do they notice?
• How can these differences be explained?
• Would the cemetery have looked different if the Germans had won the First World War?
• How might the look of the cemetery have changed had the Nazis won the Second World War?
• Comparisons can also be made to the French memorial at Verdun (the Ossuary of Douaumont - in it are placed the remains of 130,000 soldiers, French and German, whose bones were found on the battlefield. These bones can be viewed through special windows set at ground level.) Discussion could focus on what this style of memorial tells us about French attitudes to the Battle of Verdun and the First World War in general?

Why was the last post ceremony established? Pupils use Resource H to investigate how the Last Post Ceremony became connected to the Menin Gate memorial. It is important for pupils to see that the ceremony was not the result of government legislation but actually a consequence of the actions of local citizens.

Pupils can explore the ceremony in detail – in particular how the exhortation became an integral part of the ceremony. Pupils are given all seven verses of Laurence Binyon’s poem For the Fallen. Their task is to select the most appropriate verse of the poem to form a part of the ceremony and justify their choice. Discussion can then focus on why the fourth verse of the poem became used as opposed to other verses. 

Why has public interest in the Last Post Ceremony grown since the end of Second World War? Why has the purpose of the Last Post Ceremony become open to different interpretations? Pupils use Resource H to construct a Living Graph that traces the popularity of the Last Post ceremony from the late 1920s to the present day. They should annotate their graph with specific reasons why the ceremony grew or declined in popularity.

Pupils can then analyse why the Last Post Ceremony (like the Menin Gate) is open to different interpretations. Pupils could carry out interviews in order to find out what people today perceive to be the purpose of the ceremony.