Keeping alive the memories of our courageous military heroes

THIS week saw the launch of the 2022 Royal British Legion Poppy Appeal, the money-making and awareness-raising two-and-a-half weeks of activity that reminds us all of the sacrifices of those who have served their country in conflict.

When the appeal was launched, in 1921, three years after the end of the First World War, the hardship wrought by that conflict was still being painfully felt across the nation. There can hardly have been a household in the country unaffected by the fighting. Nine million poppies were sold on November 11, Armistice Day, that year.

But those involved might have wondered how long the appeal would last and how concerned people would be, a century later, to give generously to help those affected by war, whether directly as combatants, or as a result of losing loved ones.

The answer, of course, is that subsequent conflicts – plus the long shadow of the Great War, which still casts its pall over us today – has kept the Poppy Appeal going strong into its second century.

This year some 40,000 volunteers will distribute around 40 million poppies and can expect to raise up to £50million – which was the sum donated by poppy buyers in 2018-19, a record year.

The money is still vital. The Royal British Legion, which runs the appeal, has myriad claims on its funds and supports many thousands of war veterans in the Armed Forces community, both serving and retired.

Sadly the Great War, at the time said to be “the war that ends all wars” proved to be anything but.

Just 21 years later Europe was at war again in an even more destructive conflict that spread around the world. Since then there have been wars somewhere on the globe on virtually every year since – many in which British servicemen and women have played a part.

The fundraising, therefore, continues to be important in keeping the vital cash rolling in to support those modern-day soldiers, sailors and airmen and their families in time of need.

But it is still those all-important links back to the conflict of 1914-18 that gives the annual Poppy Appeal special resonance. The fact that, year after year, generation after generation born long after the end of the Great War is reminded of it during each Autumn is no bad thing.

Villages all across the Westcountry bear witness, through war memorials and church inscriptions to those who lost their lives. And where no memorial exists, such as in the village of Downland, near Winkleigh in Devon, locals will often go to extraordinary lengths to ensure the memory of those who perished is kept alive.

In Downland, as the Western Morning News reports today, they created a hand-made metal seat in memory of the villagers killed. For the build up to Remembrance Day, a fabulous display of hand-made flowers pours from the church tower.

These gestures, and the simple act of buying and wearing a poppy, show that just as the original creators of the Poppy Appeal had hoped, we continue to remember those who gave their lives to protect our freedoms, going right back to the Great War. And so we should.