Knitted poppy to commemorate the end of the First World War, bought in Helsby, UK, November 2019.Yesterday, the TRC received a photograph from England of a donation that had just been put in the post to Leiden. It is a knitted poppy, recently bought in Helsby, near Chester, UK.
All over the world, and in particular in Great Britain, the armistice of 11 November 1918, 11.00 AM, is marked by people wearing a small red poppy, mostly made of paper, on the chest, to commemorate those who fell in the First World War (1914-1918).
The poppy, as a symbol of the carnage, became widely accepted soon after the war, at first in the USA, and shortly afterwards also in Britain and other allied countries.
It also quickly became associated with a famous poem written by the Canadian doctor, Lieutenant Colonel John MacCrae, in May 1915. He penned the poem after the first German attacks with poisonous gas on French and Canadian positions close to Ypres, in Flanders, Belgium.
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.
