Editing Menin Gate (section)

==Memorial==
[[File:Field Marshal Herbert Plumer (Field Marshal Lord Plumer at the unveiling of the Menin Gate memorial, Belgium, 24 July 1927) (19893076515) (cropped).jpg|thumb|Unveiling of the memorial in 1924 by Field Marshal [[Herbert Plumer]]]]
Reginald Blomfield's [[triumphal arch]], designed in 1921, is the entry to the [[Barrel vault|barrel-vaulted]] passage for traffic through the [[mausoleum]] that honours the Missing, who have no known graves. The patient [[lion]] on the top is the lion of Britain but also the lion of Flanders. It was chosen to be a memorial as it was the closest gate of the town to the fighting, and so Allied Troops would have marched past it on their way to fight. Actually, most troops passed out of the other gates of Ypres, as the Menin Gate was too dangerous due to shellfire.

Its large ''Hall of Memory'' contains names on stone panels of 54,395 Commonwealth soldiers who died in the Salient but whose bodies have never been identified or found. On completion of the memorial, it was discovered to be too small to contain all the names as originally planned. An arbitrary cut-off point of 15 August 1917 was chosen and the names of 34,984 UK missing after this date were inscribed on the [[Tyne Cot Cemetery|Tyne Cot Memorial to the Missing]] instead. The Menin Gate Memorial does not list the names of the missing of [[New Zealand]] and [[Dominion of Newfoundland|Newfoundland]] soldiers, who are instead honoured on separate memorials.

[[File:MeninGateCeremony.jpg|thumb|left|200px|Interior, Menin Gate]]
The inscription inside the archway is similar to the one at [[Tyne Cot]], with the addition of a prefatory Latin phrase: "''Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam'', a centuries-old traditional text meaning 'To the greater glory of God'. – Here are recorded names of officers and men who fell in Ypres Salient, but to whom the fortune of war denied the known and honoured burial given to their comrades in death". This inscription, proposed by [[Rudyard Kipling]], is matched by the main overhead inscription on both the east- and west-facing façades of the arch, which he personally composed.<ref>[http://www.tpyf.com/upload/pdf/RESOURCE_E_What_does_the_Menin_Gate_look_like.pdf What does the Menin Gate look like?], Their Past Your Future, Imperial War Museum, November 2005, accessed 07/02/2010</ref> On the opposite side of the archway to that inscription is the shorter dedication: "They shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away". There are also Latin inscriptions set in circular panels either side of the archway, on both the east and west sides: "Pro Patria" and "Pro Rege" ('For Country' and 'For King'). A French inscription mentions the citizens of Ypres: "''Erigé par les nations de l'Empire Britannique en l'honneur de leurs morts ce monument est offert aux citoyens d'Ypres pour l'ornement de leur cité et en commémoration des jours où l'Armée Britannique l'a défendue contre l'envahisseur''", which translated into English means: "Erected by the nations of the British Empire in honour of their dead, this monument is offered to the citizens of Ypres for the ornament of their city and in commemoration of the days where the British Army defended it against the invader."<ref>[http://inventaris.vioe.be/woi/relict/1422 Menepoort], Belgian World Heritage Sites entry, accessed 07/02/2010</ref><ref>[http://www.forumeerstewereldoorlog.nl/viewtopic.php?t=6638&p=106563 Last Post – Menenpoort – Ieper], Forum Eerste Wereldoorlog, accessed 07/02/2010. The information is attributed to three sources: Dominiek Dendooven – Documentatiecentrum in Flanders Fields (In Flanders Fields Magazine); Dominiek Dendooven – Documentatiecentrum in Flanders Fields 'Menenpoort & Last Post'; Jabobs M., "Zij, die vielen als helden", Brugge, 1996, 2 volumes – Uitgave Provincie West-Vlaanderen.</ref>

Reaction to the Menin Gate, the first of the [[Commonwealth War Graves Commission|Imperial (now Commonwealth) War Graves Commission]]'s Memorials to the Missing, ranged from its condemnation by the war poet [[Siegfried Sassoon]], to praise by the Austrian writer [[Stefan Zweig]]. Sassoon described the Menin Gate in his poem 'On Passing the New Menin Gate', saying that the dead of the [[Ypres Salient]] would "deride this sepulchre of crime". Zweig, in contrast, praised the simplicity of the memorial, and lack of overt triumphalism, and said that it was "more impressive than any triumphal arch or monument to victory that I have ever seen". Blomfield himself said that this work of his was one of three that he wanted to be remembered by.<ref name="Stamp">''The Memorial to the Missing of the Somme'' ([[Gavin Stamp]], 2007), pp. 103–105</ref>

To this day, the remains of missing soldiers are still found from time to time in the countryside around the town of Ypres. Typically, such finds are made during building work or road-mending activities. Any human remains discovered receive a proper burial in one of the war cemeteries in the region. If the remains can be identified, the relevant name is removed from the Menin Gate.{{Citation needed|date=August 2011}}