St. Jean War Memorial

The crossroads in the centre of the little village of St. Jean (now Sint-Jan), almost exactly one mile north east of the Menin Gate.

For much of the Great War the St. Jean-Wieltje area would have been nothing but the wasteland this unfortunate soldier, photographed somewhere near Wieltje in February 1918, looks out on.

The village war memorial remembers just nine men,…

…the four men on this side all casualties from the last months of the war,…

…as are two men on this side.

Shall I take a photo of the front of the memorial next time I visit?  Five hundred yards south of here, and only a few hundred yards from the outskirts of Ieper, there’s another cemetery we have yet to visit – the road goes ever on.

This entry was posted in Belgian War Memorials, St. Jean. Bookmark the permalink.

10 Responses to St. Jean War Memorial

  1. Morag L Sutherland says:

    thanks for this I don’t think I ever noticed it…….near to the late Shrapnel Charlie’s home too

    • Magicfingers says:

      You are very welcome, Morag. Sadly I never had the chance to meet Shrapnel Charlie – and what happened to his collection?

      • Morag Sutherland says:

        Good morning from Brora
        I think his wife inherited…obviously. she was a really LOVELY lady. I will contact some locals and see what they can tell me
        We bought a Scottish piper he made to help raise funds for the memorial on the Frezenberg ridge
        He told us that his home was a family home. After the war the biggest pile of stones left was the church. His grandparents paced it out. They recognised their home under the rubble by the kitchen tiles and rebuilt. That wee story should brighten up your day. I will get back to you

        • Magicfingers says:

          Good evening from the deep south. I can quite believe all that – look for a big pile of stones and you may have found your village church. It happened a lot in Flanders post-war. I hope your Scottish piper is better than the one at Longueval!
          Day brightened.

          • Morag Sutherland says:

            Someone should blow up that thing in longueval! I could post a picture of my Shrapnel.Charlie piper. Do you have an email address?

  2. Jeff Truscott says:

    Your journals of this time in our history are outstanding. Thank you for your ongoing posts.

    • Magicfingers says:

      You’re a gent Jeff. Most kind of you. I see you have ‘signed up’. As you will have realized with the Cecil Wotton post, everything and anything on this site can and is updated, so you have a lot of stuff to go through should that interest you. Oh, I did reply to your most recent post about Cecil and any other info I have – in case you hadn’t noticed.

  3. Magicfingers says:

    Morag, can I mail you – I have your address, and that way you get mine?

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