Battle of Mons - Legacy

Legacy

Over time, the Battle of Mons has attained an almost mythic status. In the British historiographic tradition in particular, it has been given a reputation as an upset victory against overwhelming odds of the same order as the English victory at the Battle of Agincourt. Indeed, Mons spawned its own famous myth: a miraculous tale claiming that the "Angels of Mons" – angelic warriors sometimes described as phantom longbowmen from Agincourt – had saved the British army by halting the German troops.

Soldiers of the BEF who fought at Mons later became eligible for a campaign medal, the 1914 Star, often colloquially called the Mons Star, honouring troops who had fought in Belgium or France between 5 August and 22 November 1914. On 19 August 1914, Kaiser Wilhelm allegedly issued an Order of the Day which read in part: "my soldiers to exterminate first the treacherous English; walk over Field Marshal French's contemptible little Army." This led to the British "Tommies" of the BEF proudly labelling themselves "The Old Contemptibles". However, no evidence of the famous Order of the Day was ever found in the German archives after the war, and the ex-Kaiser denied having given it. An investigation conducted by General Frederick Maurice traced the origins of the Order to the British GHQ, where it apparently had been concocted for propaganda purposes.

After the battle, the Germans established the St Symphorien military cemetery as a memorial to the German, British, and Irish dead. On a mound in the centre of the cemetery was erected a grey granite obelisk, 7 metres (23 ft) tall, with a German inscription: "In memory of the German and English soldiers who fell in the actions near Mons on the 23rd and 24th August 1914". Originally, 245 German and 188 British and Irish soldiers were interred at the cemetery. Subsequently, additional British, Canadian, and German graves were moved to the cemetery from other burial grounds, and there are now over 500 soldiers buried in St. Symphorien. Of these, over 60 are unidentified, and special memorials have been erected to five soldiers of the Royal Irish Regiment believed to be buried in unnamed graves. Other special memorials record the names of four British soldiers, buried by the enemy in Obourg Churchyard, whose graves could not be found. Poignantly, St. Symphorien cemetery also contains the graves of the two soldiers believed to be the first (Private John Parr, 4th Battalion, Middlesex Regt., 21 August 1914) and the last (Private Gordon Price, Canadian Infantry, 11 November 1918) Commonwealth soldiers to be killed during the First World War. A tablet in the cemetery sets out the gift of the land by Jean Houzeau de Lehaie.