|
In Flanders'
Fields by John McCrae, 1915
In Flanders' fields the
poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place: and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders' fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe;
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high,
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders' Fields.
|
Why Poppies
|
|
The first official Legion Poppy Day
was held in Britain
on 11 November 1921, inspired by the poem In Flanders' Fields written
by John McCrae. Since then the Poppy Appeal has been a key annual event
in the nation's calendar.
How the Poppy Appeal began
Some of the bloodiest fighting
of World War One took place in the Flanders and Picardy regions of Belgium and Northern
France. The poppy was the only thing which grew in the
aftermath of the complete devastation. McCrae, a doctor serving there
with the Canadian Armed Forces, deeply inspired and moved by what he
saw, wrote the above verses.
----------------
|
|
The Poppy Factory
In 1922, Major George Howson, a
young infantry officer, formed the Disabled Society, to help disabled
ex-Service men and women from the First World War. Howson suggested to
theBritish Legion, that members of the Disabled Society could make
poppies; and the Poppy Factory was subsequently founded in Richmond in
1922. The original poppy was designed so that workers with a disability
could easily assemble it, and this principle remains today.
|
|
On the eleventh hour of the
eleventh day of the eleventh month in 1918, the First World War ended.
Civilians wanted to remember the people who had given their lives for
peace and freedom. An American War Secretary, Moina Michael, inspired
by John McCrae's poem, began selling poppies to friends to raise money
for the ex-Service community. And so the tradition began.
I thought it might be good to
remind ourselves about the reason we wear poppies on 11th of the 11th.
|
|
Offline 
Send Email