Why we
wear a poppy as a symbol of remembrance.
Brethren,
at this time of year it is traditional to wear the poppy as a symbol of
remembrance, a tradition that began as a result of the poem “In Flanders
Fields” by John McCrae.
The
field poppy is an annual plant which flowers each year between about May and
August. Its seeds are scattered on the wind and can lie dormant in the ground
for a long time. If the ground is disturbed from the early spring the seeds
will germinate and the poppy flowers will grow.
This
is what happened in parts of the front lines in Belgium and France. Once the
ground was disturbed by the fighting, the poppy seeds lying in the ground began
to germinate and grow during the warm weather in the spring and summer months
of 1915... The field poppy was blooming when the ANZAC and British Forces
arrived at the start of the campaign in April 1915.
The
sight of these delicate, vibrant red flowers growing on the shattered ground
caught the attention of a Canadian soldier by the name of John McCrae. He
noticed how they had sprung up in the disturbed ground of the burials around
the artillery position he was in. It was during the warm days of early May 1915
when he found himself with his artillery brigade near to the Ypres-Yser canal.
He is believed to have composed a poem following the death of a friend at that
time. The lines of the poem have become some of the most famous lines written
in relation to the First World War.
In
Flanders Fields
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.
How
the red Flanders poppy became the modern-day symbol of Remembrance was the
brainwave of an American woman, Miss Moina Michael. “The Poppy Lady”
On
the 9th November 1918, two days before the Armistice was declared at 11 o'clock
on 11th November. Moina Belle Michael was on duty at the YMCA Overseas War
Secretaries' headquarters in New York. She was working in the reading
room, a place where U.S. servicemen would often gather with friends and family
to say their goodbyes before they went on overseas service.
On that day
YMCA hall was busy with people coming and going. The Twenty-fifth Conference of
the Overseas YMCA War Secretaries was in progress at the headquarters. During
the early part of the morning as a young soldier passed by Moina's desk he left
a copy of the latest November edition of the “Ladies Home Journal” on the desk.
At about
10.30am Moina found a few moments to herself and browsed through the magazine.
In it she came across a page which carried a vivid colour illustration with the
poem entitled “We Shall Not Sleep”. This was an alternative name sometimes used
for John McCrae's poem, which was also called “In Flanders Fields”.
Lieutenant-Colonel John McCrae had died of pneumonia several months earlier on
28th January 1918.
Moina had come
across the poem before, but reading it on this occasion she found herself
transfixed by the last verse:
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.
In her
autobiography, entitled “The Miracle Flower”, Moina describes this experience
as deeply spiritual. She felt as though she was actually being called in person
by the voices which had been silenced by death.
At that moment
Moina made a personal pledge to “keep the faith”. She vowed always to wear a
red poppy of Flanders Fields as a sign of remembrance. It would become an
emblem for “keeping the faith with all who died”.
Compelled to
make a note of this pledge she scribbled down a response on the back of a used
envelope. She titled her poem "We Shall Keep the Faith".
Oh! you who
sleep in Flanders Fields,
Sleep sweet -
to rise anew!
We caught the
torch you threw
And holding
high, we keep the Faith
With All who
died.
We cherish,
too, the poppy red
That grows on
fields where valour led;
It seems to
signal to the skies
That blood of
heroes never dies,
But lends a
lustre to the red
Of the flower
that blooms above the dead
In Flanders
Fields.
And now the
Torch and Poppy Red
We wear in
honour of our dead.
Fear not that
ye have died for naught;
We'll teach the
lesson that ye wrought
In Flanders
Fields.
Three men
attending the conference then arrived at Moina's desk. On behalf of the
delegates they asked her to accept a cheque for 10 dollars, in appreciation of
the effort she had made to brighten up the place with flowers at her own
expense.
She was touched
by the gesture and replied that she would buy twenty-five red poppies with the
money. She showed them the illustration for John McCrae's poem “In Flanders
Fields” in the Ladies Home Journal, together with her response to it “We Shall
Keep the Faith”. The delegates took both poems back into the Conference.
After searching
the shops for some time that day Moina found one large and twenty-four small
artificial red silk poppies in Wanamaker's department store. When she returned
to duty at the YMCA Headquarters later that evening the delegates from the
Conference crowded round her asking for poppies to wear. Keeping one poppy for
her coat collar she gave out the rest of the poppies to the enthusiastic
delegates.
According to
Moina, this was the first group-effort asking for poppies to wear in memory of
“all who died in Flanders Fields”. Since this group had given her the money
with which to buy them, she considered that she made the first sale of the
Flanders Fields Memorial Poppy on 9th November 1918.
Moina Michael
was determined to put all her energy towards getting the Poppy emblem adopted
in the United States as a national memorial symbol. She was encouraged by a
positive reaction to the idea by the press.
She began a
tireless campaign at her own expense, starting with a letter to her congressman
in December 1918. In the letter she asked him to put the idea to the War
Department, which he immediately did. She wanted to act swiftly so that this
new national emblem might be already be produced in the form of pins, on
postcards and so on in time for the signing of the peace treaty at Versailles
in June 1919.
She realized
that after the war the numerous signs related to the war - the Red Cross, War
Loan insignia, Service Flags - which had been evident all over the United
States during it's involvement in the war would gradually be removed. Moina
considered that a replacement emblem, the red poppy, could be used to fill
those empty spaces as a symbolic reminder of those who had not returned home to
celebrate the end of the war.
Her religious
upbringing inspired her to believe that the Flanders Memorial Poppy was indeed
a spiritual symbol with more meaning behind it than pure sentimentalism. She
likened the new optimism for a world returned to peace after the “war to end
all wars” to the magnificent rainbow which appeared in the sky after the
terrible flood in the bible.
Originally
Moina intended to use the simple red, four petalled field poppy of Flanders as
the Memorial Poppy emblem.
However, in
spite of the interest raised by the appearance of the new emblem at the time,
and Moina's continued efforts to publicize the campaign, this emblem was not
taken up by any group or individual to help establish it as a national symbol.
By March 1919
she had moved back to Georgia to take up her place at the University of
Georgia. With the return of thousands of ex-servicemen to the state Moina
realised that there was not only a need to honour the memory of those who had
died in the service of their country, but also a need to remember that those
who were returning also had mental, physical and spiritual needs.
During the
summer months of 1919 Moina taught a class of disabled servicemen. There were
several hundred ex-servicemen in rehabilitation. She thought the emblem could
be developed so that it could be used to help all servicemen who needed help
for themselves and for their dependants.
By 1920 Moina
Michael was beginning to lose hope that the Memorial Poppy idea would ever come
to fruition. She was in a dilemma about whether to pursue her own academic
career or whether to abandon it in order to devote herself entirely to the
Memorial Poppy campaign. However, in the early 1920s a number of organizations
did adopt the red poppy as a result of Moina's dedicated campaign.
In 1919 the
American Legion was founded as an organization by veterans of the United States
armed forces to support those who had served in wartime in Europe during the
First World War.
In August 1920
Moina discovered by chance that the Georgia Department of the American Legion
was to convene on 20th of that month in Atlanta. Prior to the convention she
searched out the delegates and the Navy representative promised to present her
case for the Memorial Poppy to the convention.
The Georgia Convention
subsequently adopted the Memorial Poppy and also agreed to endorse the movement
to have the Poppy adopted by the National American Legion and resolved to urge
each member of the American Legion in Georgia to wear a red poppy annually on
11th November.
One month
later, on 29th September 1920, the National American Legion convened in
Cleveland. The Convention agreed on the use of the Flanders Fields Memorial
Poppy as the United States' national emblem of Remembrance.
A French woman
by the name of Madame Anna E Guérin was present at the 29th September National
American Legion convention. Anna was a representative of the French YMCA
Secretariat. She was inspired by Moina Michael's idea of the poppy as a
memorial flower and she also believed that the scope of the Memorial Poppy
could be expanded to help the needy. She considered that artificial poppies
could be made and sold as a way of raising money for the benefit of the French
people, especially the orphaned children, who were suffering as a result of the
war.
Anna Guérin
returned to France after the convention. She was the founder of the “American
and French Children's League” through which she organized French women,
children and war veterans to make artificial poppies out of cloth. Her intention
was that these poppies would be sold and the proceeds could be used to help
fund the restoration of the war-torn regions of France.
Anna was
determined to introduce the idea of the memorial poppy to the nations which had
been Allied with France during the First World War. During 1921 she made visits
or sent representatives to America, Australia, Britain, Canada and New Zealand.
In 1921 Madame
Guérin made arrangements for the first nationwide distribution across America
of poppies made in France by the American and French Childrens' League. The
funds raised from this venture went directly to the League to help with
rehabilitation and resettlement of the areas of France devastated by the First
World War. Millions of these French-made artificial poppies were sold in
America between 1920 and 1924.
Madame Anna
Guérin travelled to Canada, where she met with representatives of the Great War
Veterans Association of Canada. This organization later became the Royal
Canadian Legion. The Great War Veterans Association adopted the poppy as its
national flower of Remembrance on 5th July 1921.
The first
British Poppy Day Appeal was launched that year, in the run up to 11th November
1921. It was the third anniversary of the Armistice to end the Great War.
Proceeds from the sale of artificial French-made poppies were given to
ex-servicemen in need of welfare and financial support.
In 1921 Anna Guérin
sent some French women to London to sell their artificial red poppies. This was
the first introduction to the British people of Moina Michael's idea of the
Memorial Poppy. Madame Guérin went in person to visit Field Marshal Earl
Douglas Haig, founder and President of The British Legion. She persuaded him to
adopt the Flanders Poppy as an emblem for The Legion. This was formalized in
the autumn of 1921. By 1922 Haig established the first Poppy Factory in
Richmond, Surrey, but such was the demand for poppies that few were reaching
Scotland. In 1926 his wife, Lady Haig, established a Poppy Factory in Edinburgh
to produce poppies exclusively for Scotland.
Since then the
poppy has become a symbol of remembrance and for the sacrifices made by our
Armed Forces, both at times of war and in their peace keeping duties.
Importantly, for nearly 90 years it has raised millions of pounds to support
the needs of veterans and their families, living in Scotland.
And from that
time the red poppy has been sold each year by The British Legion from mid-October
to raise funds in support of the organization's charitable work.
This article
came from a combination of two sites, The Great War and Scotland poppy, and the
website can take no credit.
Our readers
might notice that the picture used at the top of this article features a poppy
with four petals and no leaf. This is what is known as the ‘Scottish Poppy.’
And this is the official reason why we have one.
Why
is there a different poppy in England, Wales and Northern Ireland?
Since Earl Haig
first launched the Poppy Appeal in Scotland in 1921, we have always had our own
unique design. The Scottish poppy features four petals, whereas the poppy
produced by the Royal British Legion for the Appeal in England, Wales and Northern
Island has two petals and a green leaf.
Why
can I not buy a poppy with the green leaf on it in Scotland?
Apart from
being botanically incorrect it would cost £15,000 to make leaves for all
poppies - money we feel is better spent on veterans. We might be slightly
biased but we think the Scottish poppy looks nicer too! Now you know why we
Scots wear a poppy without a leaf!
With
or without, Just buy one please. Lest we forget!
