A CONTINGENT of men from the Vale of Glamorgan returned recently from a tour of Belgium and France as part of Côr Meibion De Cymru, the South Wales Male Choir. Numbering 77 in all, the choir travelled by Eurostar at the invitation of the Western Front Association to assist in commemorating the centenary of the Great War.

Centre piece of the tour was their performance during a flypast of vintage aircraft over Glisy aerodrome which marked the arrival in France exactly one hundred years earlier of men and machines of the Royal Flying Corps. Another performance, on the same day, was in the truly magnificent cemetery at Faubourg d’Amiens, this time in honour of the British Expeditionary Force.

Particularly well received was the choir’s medley of songs sung by British Tommies, a medley heard again at concerts in St Bertinus church in Poperinge and at Langemark, where was told the story of Hedd Wyn and the Eisteddfod of the Black Chair.

Accompanied, as in the trenches, by a solo mouth organ – on this occasion played by Captain Terry Rooney – the choir’s humming of Keep the Home Fires Burning brought tears to many a hardened eye.

Emotions again had to be controlled under the Menin Gate, memorial to the 54,896 officers and men who lost their lives in the Ypres Salient and who have no known grave. Welsh hymns were performed following the nightly playing of the Last Post, a ceremony which has taken place every year since 1928 (with the exception of the German occupation period in WWII). Earlier visits that day had been made to St George’s church, where consecrated kneelers on behalf of the Welch Regiment and the South Wales Borderers were placed by the choir on a visit in 1998.

With concerts in Belgium as well as France, introductions by the writer had to be carried out in Flemish and French as well as in English and Welsh. ITV Wales cameras were in attendance throughout.

Following a token appearance on the Videopolis stage of Paris Disneyland (completing a triple crown of Florida, California and now Paris), the choir concluded its tour with a call at the Welsh Dragon memorial at Mametz Wood followed by an hour-long recital in the magnificent cathedral of Amiens, the tallest in France. A visit to the gardens and palace of Versailles formed a fitting denouement to a tiring but memorable tour.

Local man John Rees Davies from Barry took part in the memorable tour.