Members of Essex County Cricket club have embarked on a trip to Ypres to commemorate the 100-year anniversary and pay respects to the 12 Essex cricketers who lost their lives during World War One.
Head coach Paul Grayson attended the trip and laid a wreath on behalf of the club during the renowned ‘Last Post’ ceremony at the Menin Gate.
The trip also took in the Essex Farm cemetery on the outskirts of Ypres, a burial site named after the Essex Regiment.
This was an opportunity to witness the vast number of graves and a remembrance day cross was placed on the grave of George Sneezum, from Witham, who was killed in action.
This was laid by Andrew Black, Chairman of Witham’s Royal British Legion group, who accompanied the party of 25 on the trip. The Essex Farm cemetery was also the site where Major John McCrae wrote the famous poem ‘In Flanders Field’.
Grayson reflected on the experience, saying: “I feel very honoured to have been asked to attend the trip by Essex and the Boundary Club. The opportunity to lay the wreath at Menin Gate was a very humbling experience. I have never been here before and it is something that will live with me forever.”
Peter Northfield, Chairman of the Essex Boundary Club said: "It was an honour that we could mark, in our small way, the sacrifice made by the 12 Essex cricketers who gave their lives during the Great War.
Our members and guests who travelled to the Menin Gate in Ypres were deeply moved by this simple ceremony and the fact that 100 years on from the start of the war so many people come to Ypres to pay their respect shows their deaths were not in vain. We will remember them."