Parish Lamppost Poppies

 

The Parish Council  are supporting the Royal British Legion Poppy Appeal again this year by putting up over 200 lamppost poppies across the Parish. Thank you to Bob of the Parish Environmental Team who will be out in all weathers to put the poppies up.

HISTORY OF THE REMEMBRANCE POPPY

During the First World War  much of the fighting took place in Western Europe. Previously beautiful countryside was blasted, bombed and fought over, again and again. The landscape quickly turned to fields of mud where little could grow.

Bright red Flanders poppies are delicate but resilient flowers and grew in their thousands, flourishing even in the middle of chaos and destruction. In early May 1915, shortly after losing a friend in Ypres, a Canadian doctor, Lt Col John McCrae was inspired by the sight of poppies to write a now famous poem called ‘In Flanders Fields‘ (see below)

McCrae’s poem inspired an American, Moina Michael, to make and sell red silk poppies which were brought to England by a French woman, Anna Guérin. The Royal British Legion, formed in 1921, ordered 9 million of these poppies and sold them on 11 November that year. The poppies sold out almost immediately and that first ever ‘Poppy Appeal’ raised over £106,000; a considerable amount of money at the time. This was used to help WW1 veterans with employment and housing.

The poem

IN FLANDERS FIELDS

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.

Parish Lamppost Poppies Going Up Again

The Parish Council  are supporting the Royal British Legion Poppy Appeal again this year by putting up over 200 lamppost poppies across the Parish. Thank you to Bob of the Parish Environmental Team who will be out in all weathers to put the poppies up.