The appeal has grown from manufacturing poppies in a room above a shop in Bermondsey, South London to a facility in Richmond where 50 ex-servicemen and women work all year round producing tens of millions of the symbolic flowers. Their first Poppy Appeal in 1921 raised £106,000 – according to the charity’s annual accounts, the 2016 campaign made £49.2m. It was adopted as a symbol by the newly-formed Royal British Legion, a charity established to provide support for members and veterans of the British Armed Forces and their families. The practice quickly spread to the UK, where the first ever Poppy Day was held on 11 November, 1921, the third anniversary of Armistice Day. Its opening lines refer to how the flowers grew from the graves of soldiers across Western Europe during the conflict:Īs the war ended, American poet Moina Michael used In Flanders Fields as the inspiration for her own work, We Shall Keep the Faith, and began wearing and distributing the red poppy as a symbol of remembrance. The poppy’s origins as a symbol of remembrance lie in the First World War poem In Flanders Fields by Canadian officer John McCrae, first published in December 1915. The poppy appeal has inspired large-scale artistic installations (Photo: Getty Images) Why do we wear poppies?

Remembrance poppy etiquette