Queen Mary 2 to bring home a very special cargo

When Queen Mary 2 arrives in Southampton on Wednesday 8 October she will be bringing home a very special cargo – the final sandbag to make the journey from the First World War cemeteries in Belgium containing soil from those cemeteries to create a Flanders Field Memorial Garden.

What a grand gesture by the Cunard line who have offered to do this for the Flanders Field Memorial Garden / Guards Museum located in London where the project began several years ago. However the Common wealth War Graves Commission had previously never allowed soil to leave the battlefield cemeteries in Belgium. It has now been agreed to allow the soil to be used in the Flanders Field Memorial Garden / Guards Museum in London. What a fantastic story to travel with whilst on-board the Queen Mary 2 which arrives into Southampton on the 8th of October 2014, where the soil will then be transported to the Guards Museum.

The final sandbag will be taken from the Ypres Cemetery and under the iconic Menin Gate will be presented to Captain Kevin Oprey, Master of Queen Mary 2, prior to being taken aboard the ship in Zeebrugge on 5 October to be placed on prominent display for the ship’s 2,600 passengers to view. A Commemorative Dinner for all passengers will be held on board on 6 October and Andrew Wallis, Curator of the Guards Museum, will give a lecture about this project.

Andrew Wallis, Curator of the Guards Museum said “We at The Guards Museum are thrilled to be working with Cunard in transporting this last bag to its final resting place in Wellington Barracks. The sacrifice made by the Guards in The Great War is echoed in the huge losses suffered by Cunard’s crew and passengers so we hope everyone on-board the Queen Mary 2 will empathise and share in this act of remembrance and commemoration”.

This is just such an amazing story and to cap it all off the soil was dug by British and Belgium school chilldren in the summer of 2013. Over 1,000 children from 140 schools took part in the assistance of the project.