In the First World War, John McRae was a Canadian soldier in Flanders. He is best known for his poem In Flanders Fields, which he wrote during the conflict.
In 1915, his poem was published in Punch and began to be known more widely. From 1917, when America joined the fighting, many soldiers fought in Flanders Field. A woman called Moina Michael lived in the United States and had links which prompted a very personal connection with the war.
On November 9, 1918, just two days before the Armistice, Moina was leafing through an American magazine called Ladies’ Home Journal. In it, alongside a picture of a tragic war scene, was John McRae’s poem. Although she had come across it before, now the words inspired her in a new way. There and then she wrote a poem in response to John’s words called We Shall Keep the Faith. She went out and bought 25 silk red poppies, later handing 24 of them to delegates at the conference she was attending.
This was the very first time that poppies were worn in memory of those who had lost their lives fighting in the First World War. After that, Moina tried hard to get the United States to adopt the poppy as a memorial symbol nationally, but to no avail.
After the war, Moina returned to Georgia, where she was a university teacher. Many disabled soldiers were enrolled there, and it suddenly struck her that not only was it important to remember those who had been killed: it was also vital not to forget the needs of the living veterans. After many frustrating attempts, Moina eventually persuaded the newly-founded American Legion for Veterans to adopt the poppy and it became their emblem of remembrance every November 11. Because of her unstinting efforts to achieve this, Moina became known in the United States as the ‘Poppy Lady’.
Moina’s story does not explain how the flower became so popular in the United Kingdom. Here a French lady called Anna Guerin was excited by the American Legion’s decision, thanks to Moina, to adopt the poppy and felt certain she could arrange for replica Flanders poppies to be made back in France and sold in aid of injured veterans. She was also determined to push her idea widely.
In 1921 she tried to persuade Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and especially Britain, where she had lived for some years before the war, to adopt the poppy as an emblem. In the same year, the British Legion had been founded as an organisation to help soldiers now back home. The sad truth was that the British public was quickly forgetting the desperate situation that many veterans and bereaved families were in and the Legion needed to raise money fast to deal with a massive welfare task.
Anna Guerin’s visit to London that year could not have been timed better. She succeeded in persuading the British Legion to have a poppy appeal in time for November 11. Anna provided 900,0000 poppies for the UK, made by French widows and orphans in memory of those who had been killed. Some poppies were made in silk, others in cotton, and they raised the massive sum, for those days, of £106,000.
In the following year, the British Legion asked the Disabled Society to employ its veterans in England to make the poppies. One its founders was not optimistic saying: “I do not think it can be a great success, but it is worth trying.” Indeed they did try, and their success was spectacular.
Soon thirty million poppies a year were being sold, and the money raised enabled the British Legion to expand its much needed welfare work. By 1926, the organisation had opened its poppy factory in Richmond, London, which employs disabled veterans to this day. In those early years, with such massive demand, it soon became impossible to make enough poppies so another poppy factory was opened, this time in Scotland.
John MacRae would surely have been pleased. It was, after all, his famous wartime poem that drew so much attention to the Flanders poppies, and it was his words that inspired Moina Michael’s idea of making the poppy into a symbol of remembrance. But it was really Anna Guerin who, more than anyone else, was responsible for making the British custom of wearing poppies so widespread.
The annual Legion poppy appeal draws diverse nations together in workplaces, communities and schools across the world. Around 4,500,0000 poppies are bought and worn each year.
Image Credits: Kt bruce .
Very interesting read, learning the story of how the poppy came about, very worthwhile.