Internet service provided by:

The following is believed to be taken from a Royal British Legion pamphlet:

The selling of poppies by members or representatives of of the Royal British Legion and wearing of these artificial flowers on and around Remembrance Day, 11 November, when we remember before God and all those who died fighting on both sides in the two World Wars and other skirmishes of this century, when we pray for all those who still suffer as a result of these wars, when we intercede for peace throughout the world. The red poppy finds its origin as a symbol of remembrance in a poem which was written by Colonel John McCrae, a Canadian medical officer who served in the 1914-1918 War. During a lull in the action of the second battle of Ypres in 1915 he wrote on a page torn from his despatch book the following verses, which were later published anonymously in Punch:

"In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row
That marks 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 falling 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 May 1918 Colonel McCrae was brought as a stretcher case to one of the big hospitals on the channel coast of France. On the evening before he died he said to his doctor. "Tell them this, if ye break faith with us who die, we shall not sleep." He was buried in a beautiful cemetery on rising ground above Wimereaux, whence the cliffs of Dover may be seen on sunny days. Miss Moina Michael, thought that the wearing of a poppy would be most fitting way to keep the faith, So she wrote her poetic reply.

"Oh! You who sleep in Flanders' fields,
Sleep sweet - to rise anew;
We caught the torch you threw,
An holding high we kept
The faith with those who died
We cherish too, the Poppy red

That grows on field where valor 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
Wear in honour of our dead
Fear not that you have died for naught;
We've learned the lesson that ye taught
In Flanders' fields."

The idea prospered, and the first ever Poppy Day was held in Britain on 11th November 1921. From that day to this the poppy has been worn to symbolise Remembrance Sunday and all that it means and to help in very practical ways service men and women and their dependants. Please support The Royal British Legion Appeal this year. Perhaps at long last nations are beginning to learn "the lessons that were taught in Flanders' fields."

The Vancouver Island Military Museum is not associated with the Department of National Defence nor the Department of Veterans Affairs
Send mail to vimm@nanaimo.ark.com with questions or comments about this web site.
Copyright © 2001 - 2007 Vancouver Island Military Museum Society
     Updated 07 July, 2008