WW1 'sacred soil' ceremony to take place in London

BBC NEWS,

"Sacred soil" from 70 World War One battlefields in Belgium will be laid at a memorial garden in London later.

The soil, collected by British and Belgian schoolchildren and put into 70 sandbags, arrived on the Belgian Navy frigate Louisa Marie on Friday.

It will go on a ceremonial procession through London before reaching its last resting place at Wellington Barracks.

The soil will become the focal point of a garden marking the 100th anniversary of the start of WW1 in 1914.

On arrival in London, the Louisa Marie moored alongside HMS Belfast and the soil was transferred to the British light cruiser.

When the ceremony starts later, the bags will be loaded onto the gun carriage of the King's Troop Royal Horse Artillery along with a crucible of soil from all the battlefields.

It will be escorted by mounted members of the Household Cavalry from the Life Guards and the Blues and Royals, and mounted officers from the Metropolitan Police.

The route of the procession will pass Tower Bridge, St Paul's Cathedral, Trafalgar Square, Whitehall, Horse Guards Parade, The Mall and Buckingham Palace.

It will be blessed in a ceremony at the Guards' Chapel at Wellington Barracks - near Buckingham Palace - and placed into the ground at the Flanders Fields Memorial Garden

The soil will be placed "at the heart" of the garden where the words of John McCrae's famous poem, In Flanders' Fields, will be inscribed.

The garden will open to the public next year.

More than 1,000 British and Belgian schoolchildren were involved in collecting 70 bags of soil from the battlefields this summer.

The Guards Museum - which funded the project with help from public donations and corporate sponsors, including a contribution from the Government of Flanders - described the £700,000 project as "unprecedented" and "historic".

Museum curator Andrew Wallis said the garden would stand as a "tangible demonstration of the bond between Britain and Belgium".

The process of bringing the soil to the UK began on Armistice Day with a ceremony at the Menin Gate, attended by the Duke of Edinburgh.