Every year, in the Autumn, boxes appear on shop and cafe counters, containing paper and plastic red poppies. Sometimes there are much larger, plastic poppies, intended for the grills of cars and trucks. Why?
In 1918, the gunfire finally ended in an armistice negotiated between Germany and her allies and Britain, America, and their allies. With the benefit of hindsight, the humiliating agreement – forced on Germany at Versaille – held the seeds of the second World War, But hindsight is always 20/20. The toll in death and disability was appalling, and a fund was set up; the Haig Fund, intended to support veterans.
For years, at eleven o’clock, on the eleventh day of the eleventh month, Britain came to a standstill for two minutes. Everything stopped. The fallen were honoured, both by that silence, and the wearing of a paper, red, poppy; the proceeds from the ‘sale’ of the poppies going to the Haig Fund, later the British Legion, nowadays the Royal British Legion.
As the Great War became history, the ‘Armistice Day’ became ‘Remembrance Sunday’ on the Sunday nearest the eleventh. Dare I suggest that’s because stopping for two minutes during the working week was too much disruption to industry?
In passing, let me touch on ‘conscientious objectors’, who refused to fight, were accused of cowardice, and forced to work in dangerous and unpleasant, but necessary occupations if they were not imprisoned. There was a time when some commemorated the ‘conshies’ by the wearing of white poppies, but that seems to have subsided.
Just as there was a pacifist movement in Britain between the two world wars, so another grew among the younger generation after the second World War, most of whom had no experience of war. Sure, Britain was involved in Korea and Suez, amongst other places, but all at a remove. The government establishments, particularly at Aldermaston and Porton Down, were marched to and picketed. The opposition to nuclear, chemical and biological weapons is certainly understandable, but anyone who has been bullied knows that it is necessary to stand up to said bully. I believe the same applies to nations.
These days, I have a crocheted poppy which pins to my outer-wear, and I send a donation to RBL. As I get older, the importance of caring for our veterans seems to grow in my mind. Reinforced in my case by passing almost every day in the park, a memorial to the crew of the B17 ‘Mi Amigo’. That aircraft crashed in the park in 1944 with the loss of all the crew. The pilot avoided children playing in the park, but was unable to avoid a tree-covered slope past the open area. One of those children cares for the memorial several days a week, sweeping and tidying...