The first donations
for artificial poppies were given in Britain on 11th November 1921,
inspired by John McCrae's 1915 poem 'In Flanders' Fields'.
Some of the bloodiest fighting of World War One took place in the
Flanders and Picardy regions of Northern France. In the aftermath of
the war’s total devastation the only thing which would grow on the land
was the poppy. McCrae, a doctor serving there with the Canadian Armed
Forces, wrote these verses about what he saw:
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.
Moina
Michael, an American War Secretary with the YMCA, was moved by McCrae’s
work to write: And now the torch and Poppy red, wear in honour of our
dead.
Miss Michael bought red poppies and sold them to her friends to raise
money for Servicemen in need. Her French colleague, Madame Guerin,
proposed the making of artificial poppies and their sale to help
ex-Servicemen and their dependants.
In Britain, Major George Howson, a young infantry officer, formed the
Disabled Society, to help disabled ex-Servicemen and women from World
War One. Howson suggested to the Legion that members of the Disabled
Society could make poppies and the Poppy Factory was subsequently
founded in 1922.
The original poppy was designed so that workers with a disability could
easily assemble it and that principle remains today. More than 70% of
Poppy Factory employees have a disability or chronic illness.Please put
Poppy Appeal as a reference.
