The Poppy

The poppy is the enduring symbol of remembrance of World War One.

Poppies were a common sight, especially on the Western Front. They grew well in the soil churned up by the fighting and shelling. The flower provided Canadian doctor, Major John McCrae, with inspiration for his poem 'In Flanders Fields', which he wrote while seated on the back of a field ambulance during the Second Battle of Ypres in 1915.

The day before he wrote his famous p
oem one of his closest friends, Lieutenant Alexis Helmer, was killed in the fighting and buried in a makeshift grave with a simple wooden cross.

Wild poppies were already beginning to bloom between the crosses marking the many graves.

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.

John McCrae himself died of pneumonia, while still in command of the Military Hospital, on January 28th 1918. Artificial poppies were first sold in Britain in 1921 to raise money in support of ex-servicemen and the families of those who had died in the conflict. They were supplied by Anna Guérin, who had been manufacturing the flowers in France to raise money for war orphans. Selling poppies proved so popular that in 1922 the British Legion founded a factory - staffed by disabled ex-servicemen - to produce its own. It continues to do so today.

As World War Two emerged from the ruins of World War One, and as the world continues to be plagued by war, so the poppy has expanded its symbolic role.

The remembrance poppy is sold worldwide to raise money for veterans and others, and to remember those who have lost their lives in war.

Please support our local Poppy Appeal as generously as you can.

David Knight Vicar of Fletching, Piltdown and Sheffield Park