The story begins in 1922 when Charles Waterhouse commissioned two stained glass windows and a banner in Youlgrave All Saints church in memory of his brother Rennie Compton Waterhouse who was killed at Gallipoli in 1915. The stained glass for the windows was gathered from the ruins of Ypres Cathedral in Belgium and now exists in the beautiful stained glass memorial windows.

This event has linked the communities of Youlgrave and Ypres since that time. 2018 being the 100th anniversary of the end of WW1, was an opportunity to cement the established link and take it on in the future.

The Youlgreave-Ypres Memorial Sculpture was presented to the people of Ypres at a ceremony in Ypres Cathedral in August 2018.

The project was conceived by the Youlgreave 1914-18 Community Group which itself had been created in 2014 to highlight the then upcoming centenaries of the significant events of the 1st World War that had been participated in by many of Youlgrave’s sons and those of surrounding parishes.