Antoon Verschoot, ,

Order of the Crown (Belgium) The Order of the Crown (french: Ordre de la Couronne, nl, Kroonorde) is a national order of the Kingdom of Belgium. The Order is one of Belgium's highest honors. History The Order was established on October 15, 1897 by King Leopold II * ...

(

Ypres Ypres ( , ; nl, Ieper ; vls, Yper; german: Ypern ) is a Belgian city and municipality in the province of West Flanders. Though the Dutch name is the official one, the city's French name is most commonly used in English. The municipality co ...

, 19 June 1925 - 1 February 2017) was a Belgian

firefighter A firefighter is a first responder and rescuer extensively trained in firefighting, primarily to extinguish hazardous fires that threaten life, property, and the environment as well as to rescue people and in some cases or jurisdictions also ...

and

bugler The bugle is one of the simplest brass instruments, normally having no valves or other pitch-altering devices. All pitch control is done by varying the player's embouchure. History The bugle developed from early musical or communication i ...

who played the

last post The "Last Post" is either an A or a B♭ bugle call, primarily within British infantry and Australian infantry regiments, or a D or an E♭ cavalry trumpet call in British cavalry and Royal Regiment of Artillery (Royal Horse Artillery and R ...

at the

Menin Gate The Menin Gate ( nl, Menenpoort), officially the Menin Gate Memorial to the Missing, is a war memorial in Ypres, Belgium, dedicated to the British and Commonwealth soldiers who were killed in the Ypres Salient of World War I and whose graves a ...

for many years.

Background

On 12 December 2015, Antoon Verschoot played his final "Last Post" at the Menin Gate, after 65 years with the Ypres/Ieper fire brigade, which he joined in 1950. He became a bugler for the Last Post Association in 1954 making him the oldest and longest serving bugler with the Association. It is estimated that Verschoot played at The Gate over 15,000 times.

References

Last Post Association

The Guardian
1925 births 2017 deaths 20th-century Belgian musicians 21st-century Belgian musicians Belgian military musicians Firefighters Musicians from Ypres World War I {{belgium-bio-stub