This story is not exactly aviation-related although the Poppy has significance to any person who ever served in the military or had a family member that did, with or without Aircraft. Many people are unsure of where this tradition has its roots.
Much of the fighting took place during the First World War (1914–1918) in Western Europe. Previously beautiful countryside was blasted, bombed and fought over, again and again. The landscape swiftly turned to fields of mud: bleak and barren scenes where little or nothing could grow.
However, bright red Flanders poppies (Papaver rhoeas) were delicate but resilient flowers and grew in their thousands, flourishing even in the middle of chaos and destruction. In early May 1915, shortly after losing a friend in Ypres, a Canadian doctor, Lt Col John McCrae was inspired by the sight of poppies to write a now-famous poem called 'In Flanders Fields'.
McCrae’s poem inspired an American academic, Moina Michael, to make and sell red silk poppies which were brought to England by a French woman, Anna Guérin. The (Royal) British Legion, formed in 1921, ordered 9 million of these poppies and sold them on 11 November that year. The poppies sold out almost immediately and that first-ever 'Poppy Appeal' raised over £106,000; a considerable amount of money at the time. This was used to help WWI veterans with employment and housing.
The following year, Major George Howson set up the Poppy Factory to employ disabled ex-servicemen. Today, the factory and the Legion's warehouse in Aylesford produce millions of poppies each year.
The demand for poppies in England was so high that few were reaching Scotland. Earl Haig's wife established the 'Lady Haig Poppy Factory' in Edinburgh in 1926 to produce poppies exclusively for Scotland. Over 5 million Scottish poppies (which have four petals and no leaf unlike poppies in the rest of the UK) are still made by hand by disabled ex-Servicemen at Lady Haig's Poppy Factory each year and distributed by Poppyscotland.
THE POEM
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 poppy should be worn
The Poppy should be worn on the left-hand side by men and on the right by the fairer sex, the leaf should point in the 11 o’clock position referring to the armistice. The red of the poppy symbolises the blood spilt by the soldiers that didn’t return. The black the morning of the families left behind, the green leaf represents the grass and crops growing, and the future prosperity after the war destroyed so much.
Please fellow veterans and everyone else wear your poppy this November in remembrance of the fallen.
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