The war raged all over Europe, and with it, fields and farm we turned into barren wasteland by continued bombing and digging. And as the war continued, the grave yards expanded and evidence to the material and human destruction being wrought.
And yet in Flanders, Belgium, where the fighting was at it's fiercest, the soldiers they were greeted by an amazing sight as they ventured out of the trenches in early Spring. The fields would be covered with a carpet of red as the local Flanders Poppy flourished in the recently bomb-tilled soil.
This, and perhaps the death of a close friend, was the inspiration for Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae, a Canadian artillery officer and military doctor, to pen the following poem in May 1915: -
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.
(Sadly, McCrae died 28 January 1918 and so did not see the end of the war.)
The poem was printed in the December 8 1915 issue of Punch and soon became the unofficial anthem of the soldiers in the trenches where it was memorised and passed on by word of mouth.
In November 1918, Moina Michael penned a response to
McCrae's poem entitled "We shall keep the faith" where she promised to wear a red poppy each year in remembrance.
We Shall Keep the Faith
Oh! you who sleep in Flanders Fields,
Sleep sweet - to rise anew!
We caught the torch you threw
And holding high, we keep the Faith
With All who died.
We cherish, too, the poppy red
That grows on fields where valor led;
It seems to signal to the skies
That blood of heroes never dies,
But lends a lustre to the red
Of the flower that blooms above the dead
In Flanders Fields.
And now the Torch and Poppy Red
We wear in honor of our dead.
Fear not that ye have died for naught;
We'll teach the lesson that ye wrought
In Flanders Fields.
The Tradition grows
The idea caught on and soon became a tradition amongst those wishing to remember the
soldiers who had not returned. In 1918, Madame Guerin, the French YMCA Secretary, got the idea of selling silk poppies to raise fund for the soldiers. In 1921 in both England and Australia, silk poppies were sold by the British Legion (England) and the "Returned Sailors' and Soldiers' Imperial League of Australia" (now known as the Returned & Services League of Australia - or RSL) with funds going towards Armed Forces welfare work, a practice that continues to this day.
Wearing a poppy is a way of remembering those who gave their lives. The motto of
Anzac Day is "Lest we forget" whilst that of
Remembrance Day is "Keep the Faith".
Remembrance Day
