UK’s top military housing charity Haig Housing Trust has announced that 100 Veterans will walk 100 miles from Ypres to the Cenotaph to mark 100 years since the end of the First World War.

The march by Veterans from across the Haig Housing community has been called ‘THE LONG WALK HOME’ and the journey will finish on Remembrance Sunday at the Cenotaph.

Haig Housing was one of the organisers of the hugely successful Poppies at The Tower installation which raised millions for Veterans charities and is the country’s leading charity for military housing. The Long Walk Home has been planned as a mark of respect to those who died in the Great War and will raise funds for the charity. It is also an important milestone for Haig Housing as it was launched in memory of Earl Haig soon after the Great War.
Each of the walkers will be taken to Ypres in Belgium – scene of three major battles and Headquarters of the British salient in the First World War – and there they will begin their journey home. Over the next four days they will walk over a hundred miles from Ypres to the Belgian coast and thence from Dover to London.

The Long Walk Hope journey will go from Dover to Canterbury and Faversham; on the second day from Rochester and Rainham and on the third day the walkers will stay in Dartford and Sidcup. On the Saturday night before Remembrance Sunday the walkers will stay in a hotel before marching to the Cenotaph the following morning.

Along the route from Dover to central London the people of Kent are going to be asked to host the brave Veteran walkers overnight in a show of the ‘Dunkirk spirit’. It is hoped that the walkers will be joined along the route in November by the public, politicians and celebrities to raise awareness and raise funds for the charity.