Remembrance Sunday which falls today is a day for the nation to remember and honour those who have sacrificed themselves to secure and protect our freedom, not just the First World War but all the war dead. We also remember their families, the injured and those who survived.
Memorial services and 2 minute silences took place at war memorials, cenotaphs and churches all across the country.
Why do we wear poppies to remember the war dead?
Poppies bloomed in soil churned up by fighting on the battlefields.
This is described in the World War poem “In Flanders Fields” written in 1915 by John McCrae, a Canadian doctor who served in both the South African war and the First World War.
The day before he wrote this famous poem one of John McCrae’s closest friends was killed in the fighting and buried in a makeshift grave with a simple wooden cross. Wild poppies were already starting to bloom between the crosses marking the many graves. Unable to help his friend or the many others who had died, John gave them a voice through his poem and this was the second last poem he was to write. The poppy came to represent the huge sacrifice that was made and a lasting memorial to all those who died in wars:
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.
The poppy was then adopted by the Royal British Legion as the symbol of their poppy appeal in aid of those serving in the British Armed Forces after its formation in 1921. Every year volunteers sell poppies and this money is used to help servicemen and women who are still alive and whose lives have been changed as a result of the wars they fought in. This money helps them get jobs and somewhere to live and also helps older veterans with any support they need.
