09/11/2025
As the week of remembrance draws to a close this weekend with the traditional services, and on Saturday night there was the Festival of remembrance service, and today we will see the gathering at the Cenotaph and around the country at war memorials. On Tuesday we remember again at 11.00am the day peace was declared. Will you stop work for 2 minutes at 11.00? Will your work acknowledge the silence? I hope so.
The 11th November for me has huge connotations - it was also my Dad's birthday so for me it has a deep meaning of love and loss.
I decided that I would look at the reasoning behind where the poppy came from. Scarlet corn poppies (popaver rhoeas) apparently grew naturally in the soil and disturbed ground throughout Western Europe. The destruction brought by the Napoleonic wars of the early 19th Century resulted in fields of blood red poppies, growing around the bodies of the fallen soldiers.
In late 1914, the fields of Northern France and Flanders were once again the scenes for the horrors of World War One. Once the conflict was over the poppy was one of the only plants to grow on the otherwise barren battlefields.
The flower provided inspiration for Canadian doctor and Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae, author of inspirational poem 'In Flanders Fields', written whilst serving in Ypres in 1915.
The artificial poppies were first sold in 1921 to raise money for the Earl Haig Fund to support of ex-servicemen and the families of those who had died in the conflict. The British Legion now raises £1000's to support is a charity that provides support to the Armed Forces community, including serving and ex-serving personnel and their families:
These beautiful flowers now prompt a feeling of memory in my mind every time I see them.
