Ex-servicemen
One of the earliest guidebooks to the Ypres Salient, stated by the author to be compiled for the ex-servicemen who may wish to visit the graves and battlefields of the Great War. Works such as this guide formed the ’Roots of Remembrance’ that 100+ years on still attract pilgrims in their droves to visit the Western front and its memorials to the fallen. Unusually, and interestingly, it includes essays on various aspects of service in the Salient: Hugh Pollard on infantry, Walter Gardiner on mining, F. Worthington on RAMC Work; Machine Guns in the Salient by ’Maxim’, etc.Much research on the commemoration and memory of the Great War in the twenties and thirties concentrates on how vast numbers of people sought to deal with the deaths of their loved ones, or veterans’ attempts to interpret their wartime experiences. Such studies often focus on the memorialisation and commemoration on the home front. Far less research considers battlefields as sites of memory and tourism. The explanation of the strategic importance of Ypres, which has turned it into such a sanguinary sire, was also linked to its status as a place of remembrance and tourism; its proximity to, and easy access from, the Channel coast. Hard military realities created emotional ties which then combined with the practicalities of accessing Ypres, making it the crucial site for battlefield visiting. From the moment the conflict ended, British visitors began to arrive, seeking out the graves of loved ones, or the place they were lost, to wonder at the amazing spectacle of the battlefield, and explore the sites they had once fought.
