Zillebeke is a village in the Flemish province of West-Vlaanderen in Belgium.
History
On March 3, 1914 the then municipality was granted the arms are those of the last Lords of Zillebeke, the Canton family, Viscounts of Winnezeele, which had in 1740 acquired the Ancien Régime estate of Zillebeke.
In World War I, like other parts of Ypres, it was the site of Allied heroism, with Victoria Crosses being won by two soldiers in the area, John Henry Stephen Dimmer and John Franks Vallentin, both in 1914.
The village was mentioned in the Wipers Times, the most well-known of the trench magazines that were published by soldiers fighting on the front lines of the Great War. The 1st Battalion of The Irish Guards suffered huge casulaities defending the village and playing a major part in stopping the German breakthrough to the Channel Ports between 1st and 111 November 1914 as part of the First Battle of Ypres.
The nearby villages of Hollebeke and Voormezele were merged into Zillebeke in 1970. In 1976, the enlarged Zillebeke was merged into Ieper city.
References
- - Belgian Civil heraldry - shows the coat of arms
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