Origins of the Poppy as a Remembrance Symbol

The poppy as a symbol of remembrance

The Remembrance Day symbolism of the poppy started with a poem written by a World War I brigade surgeon who was struck by the sight of the red flowers growing on a ravaged battlefield.

From 1914 to 1918, World War I took a greater human toll than any previous conflict with some 8.5 million dead of battlefield injuries or disease. The Great War as it was then known also ravaged the landscape of Western Europe where most of the fiercest fighting took place. From the devastated landscape of the battlefields, the red poppy would grow and, thanks to a famous poem, become a powerful symbol of remembrance.

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Across northern France and Flanders (northern Belgium) the brutal clashes between Allied and Central Powers soldiers tore up fields and forests, tearing up trees and plants, and wreaking havoc on the soil beneath. But in the warm early spring of 1915, bright red flowers began peeking through the battle-scarred land: Papaver rhoeas, known variously as the Flanders poppy, corn poppy, red poppy, and corn rose. As Chris McNab, author of The Book of the Poppy wrote in an excerpt published in the Independent the brilliantly colored flower is classified as a weed which makes sense given its tenacious nature.

Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae, a Canadian who served as a brigade surgeon for an Allied artillery unit spotted a cluster of poppies that spring shortly after the Second Battle of Ypres. McCrae tended to the wounded and got a firsthand look at the carnage of that clash in which the Germans unleashed lethal chlorine gas for the first time in the war. Some 87,000 Allied soldiers were killed, wounded, or went missing in the battle (as well as 37,000 on the German side); a friend of McCrae’s, Lieutenant Alexis Helmer was among the dead.

Cowpens National Battlefield, South Carolina © Rex Vogel, all rights reserved

Struck by the sight of bright red blooms on broken ground, McCrae wrote a poem, In Flanders Field in which he channeled the voice of the fallen soldiers buried under those hardy poppies. Published in Punch magazine in late 1915 the poem would be used at countless memorial ceremonies and became one of the most famous works of art to emerge from the Great War. Its fame had spread far and wide by the time McCrae himself died from pneumonia and meningitis in January 1918.

Across the Atlantic, a woman named Moina Michael read In Flanders Field in the pages of Ladies Home Journal that November just two days before the armistice. A professor at the University of Georgia at the time the war broke out Michael had taken a leave of absence to volunteer at the New York headquarters of the Young Women’s Christian Association (YWCA) which trained and sponsored workers overseas. Inspired by McCrae’s verses, Michael wrote her poem in response which she called We Shall Keep Faith.

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As a sign of this faith and a remembrance of the sacrifices of Flanders Field, Michael vowed to always wear a red poppy; she found an initial batch of fabric blooms for herself and her colleagues at a department store. After the war ended she returned to the university town of Athens and came up with the idea of making and selling red silk poppies to raise money to support returning veterans.

Michael’s campaign to create a national symbol for remembrance—a poppy in the colors of the Allied nations’ flags entwined around a victory torch—didn’t get very far at first. But in mid-1920 she managed to get Georgia’s branch of the American Legion, a veteran’s group to adopt the poppy (minus the torch) as its symbol. Soon after that, the National American Legion voted to use the poppy as the official U.S. national emblem of remembrance when its members convened in Cleveland in September 1920.

On the opposite side of the Atlantic, a Frenchwoman named Anna Guérin had championed the symbolic power of the red poppy from the beginning. Invited to the American Legion convention to speak about her idea for an Inter-Allied Poppy Day, Madame Guérin helped convince the Legion members to adopt the poppy as their symbol and to join her by celebrating National Poppy Day in the United States the following May.

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Back in France, Guérin organized French women, children, and veterans to make and sell artificial poppies as a way to fund the restoration of war-torn France. As Heather Johnson argues on her website devoted to Madame Guérin’s work, the Frenchwoman may have been the single most significant figure in spreading the symbol of the Remembrance poppy through the British Commonwealth countries and other Allied nations.

Within a year, Guérin brought her campaign to England where in November 1921 the newly founded (Royal) British Legion held its first-ever Poppy Appeal which sold millions of silk flowers and raised over £106,000 (a hefty sum at the time) to go towards finding employment and housing for Great War veterans. The following year, Major George Howson set up the Poppy Factory in Richmond, England in which disabled servicemen were employed to make the fabric and paper blooms.

Other nations soon followed suit in adopting the poppy as their official symbol of remembrance. Today, nearly a century after World War I ended millions of people in the United Kingdom, Canada, France, Belgium, Australia, and New Zealand don the red flowers every November 11 (known as Remembrance Day) to commemorate the anniversary of the 1918 armistice.

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According to McNab, the Poppy Factory now located in Richmond, England and Edinburgh, Scotland is still the center of poppy production churning out as many as 45 million poppies made of various materials each year.

In the United States, the tradition has developed a little differently. Americans don’t typically wear poppies on November 11 (Veterans Day) which honors all living veterans. Instead, they wear the symbolic red flower on Memorial Day—the last Monday in May—to commemorate the sacrifice of so many men and women who have given their lives fighting for their country.

Worth Pondering…

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.

—John McCrae

November 11: Celebrating our Freedoms and Recognizing the Sacrifice of our Veterans

When so many have given so much in the battle for our freedom the least we can do is continue to fight for our liberties

In order to insure proper and widespread observance of this anniversary, all veterans, all veterans’ organizations, and the entire citizenry will wish to join hands in the common purpose.
—President Dwight Eisenhower

Veterans Day is a day to celebrate our freedoms and recognize the sacrifice that so many men and women have made for us to have those freedoms. For one day, we stand united in respect for our veterans.

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Observed annually on November 11, Veterans Day is a tribute to military veterans who have served in the U.S. Armed Forces. Not to be confused with Memorial Day which honors those who died while in service, Veterans Day honors all military veterans including those still with us.

This holiday started as a day to reflect upon the heroism of those who died in their country’s service and was originally called Armistice Day. It fell on November 11 because that is the anniversary of the signing of the Armistice that ended World War I on the “11th hour, of the 11th day, of the 11th month” in 1918.

Cowpens National Battlefield, South Carolina © Rex Vogel, all rights reserved

However, in 1954, the holiday was changed to Veterans Day in order to account for all veterans in all wars.

Today we continue to celebrate the day as Veterans Day still recognizing the original tie with November 11. That means Veterans Day is on the same day every year—November 11—regardless of on which day of the week it falls.

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Veterans Day is a federal holiday, a bank holiday, and, in most states, a state holiday. That means that federal employees including military members are typically given the day off and in most states, state workers are as well.

Veterans Day is one of many days remembering the sacrifices of those who fought in a war to protect our freedoms. Here are some other ones from across the globe.

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Remembrance Day is observed by Canadians and other members of the British Commonwealth since the end of the First World War to remember all those who fought and died in the line of duty.

Remembrance Day falls on the 11th of November each year. On the 11th hour on the 11th day of the 11th month, a minute’s silence is observed and dedicated to those soldiers who died fighting to protect the nation. 

Gettysburg National Military Park, Pennsylvania © Rex Vogel, all rights reserved

Remembrance Day was first observed in 1919 throughout the British Commonwealth. It was originally called Armistice Day to commemorate the armistice agreement that ended the First World War on Monday, November 11, 1918, at 11 a.m.—on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month.

From 1921 to 1930, Armistice Day was held on the Monday of the week in which November 11 fell. In 1931, Alan Neill, Member of Parliament for Comox–Alberni, introduced a bill to observe Armistice Day only on November 11. Passed by the House of Commons, the bill also changed the name to “Remembrance Day”. The first Remembrance Day was observed on November 11, 1931.

Cowpens National Battlefield, South Carolina © Rex Vogel, all rights reserved

Every year on November 11, Canadians pause in a moment of silence to honor and remember the men and women who have served and continue to serve Canada during times of war, conflict and peace. We remember the more than 2,300,000 Canadians who have served throughout our nation’s history and the more than 118,000 who made the ultimate sacrifice.

The poppy is the symbol of Remembrance Day. Replica poppies are sold by the Royal Canadian Legion to provide assistance to Veterans.

Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park © Rex Vogel, all rights reserved

Remembrance Day is symbolized by the artificial poppies that people wear and place at war memorials. The poppies may be worn or placed singly or as wreaths. The use of the poppy as a symbol of remembrance comes from a poem written by John McCrae, a Canadian doctor serving in the military. The poem is called In Flanders Fields and describes the poppies growing in the Flemish graveyards where soldiers were buried.

Poppies grow well in soil that has been disturbed. They also grew in large numbers on battlefields. The red color of their petals reminded people of the blood lost by victims of and casualties in the conflict.

Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park © Rex Vogel, all rights reserved

McCrae’s well-known poem In Flanders Fields memorializes the April 1915 battle in Belgium’s Ypres salient. For 17 days, McCrae tended to those injured in the battle. The poem, written after the death of a close friend was first published in Punch magazine and led to the adoption of the poppy as the Flower of Remembrance for the British and Commonwealth war dead. McCrae wrote several medical textbooks during his life and his poetry was posthumously gathered into the collection In Flanders Fields and Other Poems (1919).

When so many have given so much in the battle for our freedom the least we can do is continue to fight for our liberties.

Worth Pondering…

In Flanders Fields

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.

—John McCrae (1872–1918)

Top 12 Veterans Day Destinations

In honor of Veterans Day, celebrated annually on November 11, we’ve found some great destinations that are steeped in military history

Veterans Day, first celebrated in 1919 under the proclamation of Woodrow Wilson, Veterans Day was originally called Armistice Day and was in honor of the end of hostilities at the end of World War I (which formally ended in the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month in 1918). The holiday changed to its modern form in 1954.

USS Alabama in Mobile, Alabama © Rex Vogel, all rights reserved

Some of the best places to visit for a sense of what a veteran has experienced are museum ships. You can visit the Midway in San Diego, California; the Lexington in Corpus Christi, Texas; the Yorktown in Charleston, South Carolina; the Hornet in Alameda, California; the Intrepid in New York, New York; USS Alabama in Mobile, Alabama; and USS Constitution (Old Ironside) in Boston, Massachusetts.

USS Constitution (Old Ironside) in Boston, Massachusetts © Rex Vogel, all rights reserved

On January 17, 1781, the Americans won a decisive battle against the better-trained British Army. The Battle of Cowpens (South Carolina) was over in less than an hour. This battle was the event which started British General Cornwallis on his march north to his eventual surrender at Yorktown just nine months later.

The Battle of Cowpens © Rex Vogel, all rights reserved

It was one of those special moments in time when destiny is forever changed. The march to Yorktown had begun.

Cowpens National Historic Park © Rex Vogel, all rights reserved

The first significant American military victory during the Revolution, the Battles of Saratoga ranks among the fifteen most decisive battles in world history. Here in the autumn of 1777 American forces met, defeated, and forced a major British army to surrender. This crucial American victory in the Battle of Saratoga renewed patriots’ hopes for independence, secured essential foreign recognition and support, and forever changed the face of the world.

Battle of Sarasota © Rex Vogel, all rights reserved

The Battles of Saratoga (September 19 and October 7, 1777) marked the climax of the Saratoga campaign giving the Americans a decisive victory over the British forces. British General John Burgoyne led a large invasion army up the Champlain Valley from Canada, hoping to meet a similar force marching northward from New York City; the southern force never arrived, and Burgoyne was surrounded by American forces in upstate New York.

Gettysburg National Military Park © Rex Vogel, all rights reserved
Gettysburg National Military Park © Rex Vogel, all rights reserved

Though all the survivors from the Civil War are now gone, it’s still a great way to honor veterans and learn some history at the same time. Gettysburg, in Pennsylvania, is perhaps the epitome of Civil War battlefields. It was the largest, bloodiest battle of the Civil War with 50,000 casualties. Though the conflict took place more than 150 years ago, it’s still a powerful reminder of the sacrifice and strife that took place and that almost tore apart the nation.

Gettysburg National Military Park © Rex Vogel, all rights reserved

Fought over the first three days of July 1863, the Battles of Gettysburg was one of the most crucial battles of the Civil War. The fate of the nation literally hung in the balance that summer of 1863 when General Robert E. Lee, commanding the “Army of Northern Virginia”, led his army north into Maryland and Pennsylvania.

Appomattox Court House National Historic Park © Rex Vogel, all rights reserved

The Union victory at the Battle of Gettysburg resulted not only in Lee’s retreat to Virginia, but an end to the hopes of the Confederate States of America for independence.

Appomattox Court House National Historic Park © Rex Vogel, all rights reserved

The Appomattox Court House National Historic Park commemorates the heroic acts which took place in April of 1865 in this, the original village, to bring about the end of the Civil War.

Appomattox Court House National Historic Park © Rex Vogel, all rights reserved

Walk the old country lanes where Robert E. Lee, Commanding General of the Army of Northern Virginia, surrendered his men to Ulysses Grant, General-in-Chief of all United States forces, on April 9, 1865. Imagine the events that signaled the end of the Southern States’ attempt to create a separate nation.

Appomattox Court House National Historic Park © Rex Vogel, all rights reserved

The nation’s capital is teeming with monuments dedicated to the brave men and women who fought in wars both present and past. Some honor those who fell and some honor those who fought. Regardless, there are plenty of stunning monuments to see and places to visit. If you can, it’s a wonderful place to spend Veterans Day.

Thank you veterans!

Worth Pondering…

While only one day of the year is dedicated solely to honoring our veterans, Americans must never forget the sacrifices that many of our fellow countrymen have made to defend our country and protect our freedoms.

—Randy Neugebaue