Eight things you never knew about poppies

October 24th, 2009 by Graham

Poppy
We just had a lady arrive on the doorstep of Fabiola & Sing Sing selling poppies for Remembrance Day.

I’m always impressed by the people who volunteer and collect money for good causes at this time of year, commemorating those who have been lost in conflicts around the world.

I do feel sorry for the humble poppy though – it’s a beautiful flower, but always now associated with wars. Maybe poppies need a PR consultant to give them a new image?

Here are eight facts about poppies:

1. Poppies first caught people’s attention during the Napoleonic Wars, as they bloomed over the graves of fallen soldiers.

2. In World War I, the poppy was noticed in large numbers again, popping up (is that why they’re called poppies?) in the rubble of France and Belgium as the soil became rich in lime. The small red flowers flourished around the graves of the dead, as they had a century before during the Napoleonic Wars.

3. The most famous bloom of poppies during World War I was to be found in the churned up soil of Ypres, a town in Flanders, Belgium. 1915 saw the second battle of Ypres, which was calamitous for the allies as it saw the first use of the new German chlorine gas, bringing forth poppies in large numbers.

4. Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae of the Canadian Forces Artillery was inspired by the poppies he saw at Ypres to write the famous poem “Flanders Fields”, describing how the flowers blew between the wooden crosses. McCrae was actually dissatisfied with the poem and threw it away. Fortunately a fellow officer saved it and sent it to newspapers in England where, after being rejected by London’s Spectator, it was finally published by Punch in December 1915.

5. Two days before the Armistice, an American woman called Moina Michael from Athens, Georgia, read McCrae’s poem, and was so moved that she wore an artificial red silk poppy all year round in memory of those who died in the war. Moina campaigned to have the poppy emblem adopted as a national memorial symbol in the United States.

6. On 29 September, 1920 the National American Legion agreed to make the Flanders Fields Memorial Poppy its national emblem of remembrance. A French woman , Madame E. Guérin, had met Moina Michael at Columbia University’s YMCA, where Moina was working as a volunteer, and was present at the National American Legion. Madame Guérin set about selling millions of poppies, made by French women.

7. In 1921 Madame Guérin introduced the Memorial Poppy to the UK, when she sent French women to London to sell poppies. In the autumn of 1921, at a meeting with Field-Marshall Earl Haig (the former Commander-in-Chief of the British Armies in France and Belgium) she convinced him to adopt the Flanders Poppy for the British Legion. The British Legion’s Poppy Day Appeal was born, raising money for poor and disabled veterans.

8. The wearing of white poppies is, perhaps surprisingly, not a new phenomenon. The idea dates back to 1933, when the UK Women’s Guild designed them to represent peace. In both 1933 and 1988 the British Legion was invited to produce white poppies, but they declined (and refused to accept proceeds) as they felt they were disrespectful to soldiers.

If you’re interested in learning more about her story, read this webpage about Moina Michael and how the poppies of Flanders Field became the flower of remembrance.