Battlefield Tour based at Ypres

Rotarians honour Welsh fallen

On Thursday 11th April 2013 members of Rhos on Sea Rotary club embarked on what was to be an emotional and poignant journey to visit Flanders fields in Ypres, Belgium, and the Artillery Wood cemetery, the final resting place of the famous Welsh poet, Hedd Wyn. The trip had been arranged by former Welch Fusiliers Major, Rotarian Merfyn Thomas.

The Members also visited a nearby cafe where, on the first Monday of every month in a cafe in Boezinge, the Welsh flag is solemnly raised and marks the spot where Welch Fusilier Hedd Wyn, from Trawsfynydd was killed on 1^st July 1917 in the 3^rd battle of Ypres, otherwise known as the battle of Passchendaele in the First World War. These days, the location is home to an otherwise unremarkable cafe called De Sportsman.The interior of the cafe is festooned with the Welsh flag and memorabilia, while the outside wall bears a plaque in honour of the writer, who was posthumously awarded the chair at the National Eisteddfod in 1917 after being killed at Passchendaele that July. At the start of every month, the sacrifice made by Hedd Wyn, and his countrymen, in the fields around the area is remembered according to cafe owner Marc Decaestecker, who said