In Flanders Field The Poppys Grow - Wearing Poppies On Remembrance Day

Flanders Field - Ravaged By War

Across northern France, and an area of northern Belgium known as Flanders, soldiers tore up fields and forests, plants and trees, as they battled in World War I.  The land was ravaged by the war, and appeared desolate.  

But in the warm spring of 1915, bright red Papaver Rhoeas, a weed commonly known as the corn flower, or poppy, began to peek through the battle scarred land.

When Lt Col. John McCrae, A Canadian Brigade Surgeon, spotted the bright flowers peeking through the war ravaged field, he sat down and penned a poem, in which he channeled the voice of fallen soldiers buried there.

Flanders Field was first published in Punch magazine in 1915, and it quickly became one of the most famous works of art to emerge from the Great War.

In Flanders Fields

BY JOHN MCCRAE

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.

Two days before the Armistice in 1918, Moina Michael read McCreas poem in the Ladies Home Journal.  She penned We Shall Keep Faith, in response.  Michael had been a professor at the University of Georgia when the war broke out, but she took a leave of absence to volunteer at the YWCA, to help train and sponsor workers overseas.

We Shall Keep The Faith

By Moina Michael

Return to Flanders Fields

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 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

We wear in honor of our dead.

Fear not that ye have died for naught;

We'll teach the lesson that ye wrought

In Flanders Fields.

She was so struck by McCreas poem, she purchased a bunch of fabric poppies from a local department store for herself and her colleagues, and vowed to wear one always.

After the war ended, Michaels came up with the idea to make and sell red poppies to raise money for the returning veterans. Her campaign did not succeed at first, but in 1920 she convinced Georgias brand of the American Legion to adopt the poppy as it's symbol.  Soon after, the National American Legion voted to use the poppy as the official US National Emblem of Remembrance.

In France, Anna Guerin was also championing the symbol of the red poppy.  She organized french women and children, as well as veterans, to make and sell artificial poppies as a way to fund restoration of the war torn France.

In 1921, Madame Guerin expanded her campaign to England, where the Royal British Legion held it's first ever Poppy Appal.  The event sold millions of silk flowers, and raised a hefty sum which went toward helping veterans find employment and housing.  Major George Howson set up a poppy factory in Richmond England, where disabled servicemen were employed to make fabric and paper poppy blooms.

The Earl Haig fund acquired it's poppies from England for many years, until 1926 when Countess Haig suggested that a factory, also employing those disabled by the war, should be started in Scotland.  Lady Haig's Poppy Factory continues to operate, making poppies and poppy wreaths yet today.

In the United States, Poppies are typically worn on Memorial Day, the day we commemorate the sacrifice of those who gave their lives fighting for their country.

But around the globe, in Canada, France, Belgium, Australia, and New Zealand, poppies are worn on Armistice Day, now known as Veterans Day, but originally the celebration of the truce between the Allied and Germans, declared on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month, in 1918.

How To Wear A Poppy
From an article in INews.UK - 
"Is there a 'right' side to wear the poppy?
Some people say a poppy should be worn on the left lapel, to keep it close to your heart – it is also the side that medals are worn by the Armed forces.

Others argue that the symbol should be displayed on the left by men and the right by women, the traditional positions of a badge or brooch.

The positioning of the flower’s leaf has also prompted debate, with one theory dictating that it should be at 11 o’clock, representing the Armistice being signed at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month.

However, the British Legion insists there is no right or wrong way, saying: "The best way to wear one is with pride."

Make Your Own Red Poppy

Free Templates, Tutorials, and SVGS

And even knitting & crocheting patterns

https://fieldsofhether.blogspot.com/2019/11/remembrance-day-free-red-poppy.html

Read More:

• https://www.utnrotcalum.org/alumni/FlandersFieldsStory.htm
• https://www.veteranaid.org/blog/2016/11/09/story-red-poppy-remembrance-day/
• https://poppyladymadameguerin.wordpress.com/