Ypres: 10th to 13th November 2011
We visited Ypres on 11th November, 2011 – as the date, 11/11/11, seemed a significant reminder of upcoming contrary of the First World War.
Between the October of 1914 and the October of 1918 five engagements, collectively know as the Battle of Ypres, were fought in the Salient (a feature that projects into an enemy’s territory and is surrounded on three sides) around the Belgium city of Ypres or Ieper.
During these five engagements, casualties may have surpassed one million
The City was badly damaged by shelling and buildings like the Cloth Hall were rebuilt from the ruins. Dedicated in 1923, the ‘Menin Gate Memorial to the Missing’, records the names of 54.000 allied and commonwealth soldiers of the First World War who have no known grave.
About The Unreturning Project
The Unreturning focuses on Remembrance – taking its name from a poem by Wilfred Owen, the First World War poet.
The poem, like much of Owen’s work, was published posthumously as Shropshire born Owen was killed in action on 4 November 1918 – just one week before the armistice.
Each one whom Life exiled I named and called
From The Unreturning by Wilfred Owen
The Unreturning project started with pictures taken in Ypres on the weekend of 12 to 13th November 2011 and some of these image formed the basis for an exhibition at Bishop’s Castle Town Hall to mark the centenary of the start of the First World War in 2014. Some of these images also featured in an exhibition to commemorate the centenary of the end of the war in 2018.
These images represent and uncurated collection of images. At the end of the project, I will curate a collection of images that, when considered together, best represent the project.
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All images © W N BISHOP