Another year, another mid-November Sunday and another moving Remembrance Day in London, throughout the United Kingdom and around the world. Traditionally the first Sunday that follows the official Remembrance Day on the 11th November that marks the end of World War I in 1918, red paper poppy flowers resemble the poppies that bloomed across the worst areas of trench warfare across the battlefields of Flanders that is also recalled in Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae's notorious poem, "In Flanders Fields" from 1915. First introduced in 1921 after a YMCA Overseas War Secretaries' Conference - American humanitarian Moina Michael conceived the use of artificial silk poppies - the idea was adopted by Field Marshall Douglas Haig who founded the Royal British Legion, which has sold the timeless red paper poppy with green leaf and black plastic bud ever since. Simple in design, yet complex in the memories that it embodies, today we must never forget the sacrifice of life ninety-two years ago as well as the ultimate sacrifices that are being taken everyday by young men and women in the armed forces in the Middle East. Visit the Royal British Legion for information about the Poppy Appeal 2010 and more details on the charitable support and service the Legion provides to ex-Service personnel and their families.
