Belgium 2018

Haverfordwest Male Voice Choir recently returned from a five-day visit to Belgium.  During the visit they were based in Ghent.  On the first day of the tour the choir gave an impressive concert at St. Salvator Cathedral in Bruges.  During the concert tenor Dr. Ben Hughes had a brilliant reception from the audience, when he sang two beautiful solos, The Holy City and Time to Say Goodbye.  Haydn Davies and William Miles sang the duet Panis Angelicus, which was also well received.    

During the stay they paid a visit to the war graves in and around Ypres and were given a guided tour.  To begin the choir sang a few hymns at Menin Gate to pay their respects.  The first visit was to Essex Farm where John McCrae wrote “In Flanders Fields” and site of an advanced dressing station.  Then on to the Welsh Memorial near Pilkem Ridge also close to the site of the death of Ellis Humphrey Evans (better known by his bardic name Hedd Wynn), a Welsh poet who won the Eisteddfod chair in 1917.  At the grave of Hedd Wyn two of the choirs choristers brothers Alun and Ron Thomas sang Yr Arwr, the poem that won him the chair at the Eisteddfod.  At the site of the death of Hedd Wyn the choir chairman laid a wreath, followed by the choir singing Gwahoddiad and the Welsh National Anthem.  Tyne Cottage memorial, which is the largest War grave cemetery in the world, was the last to be visited.  The entire day brought home to the choir what true sacrifices were made, so that we could be free 

The choir had some free time to sight see at their leisure.  During the tour Martyn Jones did a brilliant job as musical director, as did their accompanist Peter Griffiths