GREAT PILGRIMAGE

Dominion, Volume 21, Issue 259, 2 August 1928, Page 8

GREAT PILGRIMAGE

TO BATTLEFIELDS OF FRANCE (British Official Wireless.) Rugby, July 31. A great pilgrimage to the battlefields of Northern France, organised by the British Legion, will start from London about midnight next Saturday, the 14th anniversary of Britain’s entry into the Great War. The pilgrims, who will number 11,000, will be joined on the other side of the Channel by the Prince of Wales, who served in France with the Guards, Lady Haig, widow of the Commander who led the British Army to victory, and many distinguished officers, including Marshal Foch and Admiral Lord .Tellicoe. Twenty special trains will convey the huge party from London to the Channel ports, where 12 steamers will be waiting to take them to France. They will then travel in special trains to various points on the old battlefront. They will stay for four days, and the culminating event of the visit will be a solemn ceremony at Ypres. From their various headquarters, all tlie 11,000 will travel to the historic town, in what was the famous salient, and will gather at the Mcnin Gate Memorial to Britons who fell there. Here there will be an impressive scene. The banners of 87 British divisions will be displayed over the archwav and along the ramparts, and there will be a march past, in which the Prince of Wales and Lady . Haig will take part, followed by a religious service, at which an address will be given by the Archbishop of York, now the Archbishop-Designate of Canterbury.