Madame le Maire,

Mister Johnson, director of the CWGC France,

Your excellency, ambassador of Bangladesh to Belgium and patron of The Drones Club,

Dear members of The Drones Club of Belgium,

85 années après le déces de Hector Hugh Munro nous sommes réunis à Thiepval. Notre Club fondé autour et inspiré par l’oeuvre literaire de P.G. Wodehouse veut commémorer le journaliste et écrivain Saki.Hector Hugh Munro was killed at Beaumont Hamel, a few kilometers from here, on 14 november 1916.The British had tried to take Beaumont-Hamel early in July, but the German encampment had proved impregnable. Since that time the Germans had strengthened their forces, and the weather went against the British. An autumn of constant rain and mud made the trenches all but unendurable.

On November 13 at 1.30 A.M., the 22 Royal Fuseliers, Munro’s battalion, marched in darkness to the trenches. Just before 6 A.M., the Fifth Infantry Brigade moved out of the trenches to attack, and every British gun from Ancre at the far north openend its bombardement. The noise was ferocious. Munro’s battalion edged forward to form a defensive guard for the exposed flank of the Fifth Infantry.Around 4 A.M. on the morning of november 14 Munro’s Company was sent out of the trenches to flank at the left of the battalion’s advancing line. Behind them, the ground was a deep marsh, and men were sinking to their bellies in the mud, not able to work themselves forward. There was a sudden roar of guns and then silence. Munro found a shallow crater for shelter. Through the darkness an air of serenity was spreading among the troops.

One of the men lighted a cigarette. Munro knew it was to dangerous to be smoking and shouted an order to stop. His voice was followed by the sound of a German sniper shot.As we stand here today, we can see Hector Hugh Munro’s name engraved in the Thiepval Memorial. One of the more than 70.000 names remembered here. Saki died as Lance Sergeant but had certainly potential for an officers rank, he refused several commissions. Besides he’s mastery of German, Munro was a gentleman. He told a collegue journalist that he distrusted his ability to be good officer. There is a parell with his literary career which never grew to the same heights as for example P.G. Wodehouse’s.

Besides being a journalist Saki never got real ‘publicity’, he kept his personal habits and privat life in the background. His talent, enchanting as it is to devotees, lacks the ingredients of a ‘best-seller’. It is too unsentimental and to flippant.In contradiction with other - more reputated British war writers and poets, as Siegfried Sassoon and Wilfred Owen - Saki's most important work dates from before the war. Like other observant people of his time, Hector Munro knew that a change was coming. He watched the growth of Germany and predicted an inevitable clash with the Kaiser. In 1913, he published the novel "When William Came", aimed at alerting his countrymen to the treat. William stands for Kaiser Wilhelm and his troops. Munro does not show the struggle between the German and British forces. Instead he moves directly to the consequences of an English defeat.In organising this commemoration The Drones Club of Belgium wants to pay tribute to a literary craftsman who left us a large number of cleaver short stories, full of wit and black humor, three novels and three plays. His novels and stories appear today as delightful as they did when he first published them. They are perhaps dated because they evoke an atmosphere and society which vanished in the summer of 1914.

I am convinced that there will always be enough admirers of Saki to keep his memory alive.I wish to invite his excellency, Muhammad Zamir, ambassador of Bangladesh to Belgium, over here to lay down a commemorative crown in honour of Hector Hugh Munro.The board of the Belgian Drones decided in the first months of 2001 that a more permanent token of appreciation towards Hector Hugh Munro was necessary in view of this ceremony.In unveiling a commemorative plate on his spot, against one of walls of the gardeners residence of the CWGC, The Drones Club of Belgium not only wants to pay tribute to Lance Sergeant Munro, but also to the CWGC for their continuous work in maintaining and preserving the memory of all commonwealth soldiers died during military conflicts.

If you permit me the comparison with P.G. Wodehouse. In his Blandings novels Wodehouse discribes the head gardener of Blandings, Angus Mac Allister. He is a red heared and temperamental Scot. Lord Emsworth, proprietor of Blandings has an enormous respect for Mac Allister. Sometimes there are clashes between both men, the Lord has his own views about gardening. But no one else besides Angus Mac Allister can bring the pumpkins and roses to there splendour. So, at the end Mac Allister always wins. When we look around us here we see a virtuoso created and perfectly maintainted landscape. It’s is the talent of the gardeners of the CWGC to create this serene atmosfere which invites us to reflect upon the memory of all those who died here during the First Word War.I also wish to thank madame Pottié, maire of Thiepval, in supporting this ceremony.

May I invite Mr. Johnson, director of the CWGC France and ambassador Zamir over here to unveil the plate.

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