Last Post At Thiepval 1932

This image comes from a collection of postcards produced following the unveiling of the Thiepval Memorial in1932. This huge memorial to the missing – the largest British memorial from the Great War – was built to commemorate nearly 73,000 men who died on the Somme from July 1915 to March 1918 and have no known grave; most of the names are those who died in the 1916 battle.

When the memorial was unveiled on 1st August 1932 a large pilgrimage of veterans, and the families of those commemorated on the memorial were in attendance. Representatives from the British Army were in attendance and these three British Army buglers played the last post. They are facing the 18th (Eastern) Division memorial, and the young trees of the new Thiepval Wood are visible and just beyond them the Ulster Tower. Whether there were plans to make the buglers a permanent fixtures – as at the Menin Gate – is hard to say, but this is a very poignant photograph.