Poppy Appeal

Shortly after losing a friend at Ypres in early May 1915, a Canadian doctor named Lt. Col. John Mccrae was inspired to write his now-famous poem “In Flanders Fields” by the sight of bright red Flanders poppies growing in their thousands in the battle-scarred fields of France.

Mccrae’s poem inspired Moina Michael to make and sell red silk poppies, which were brought to England by a French woman named Anna Guérin.

The (Royal) British Legion, formed in 1921, ordered nine million of these poppies and sold them on November 11 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 World War I veterans with employment and housing. ■