Remembrance Sunday

As Remembrance Sunday approaches, I have been debating about what to put on my blog – and I have seriously thought about the next piece I’m going to put up because I know that it’s going to upset quite a lot of people. I wrote it about a year, maybe eighteen months ago as a response to Symon Hill’s article regarding the wearing of the Red Poppy. And I find that in most respects I agree with him; however I would be wary of replacing the Red Poppy for many of the reasons I have listed below.

The Red Poppy

Normally, I wouldn’t write a response to Simon Hill’s ‘Red Poppy Appeal Insults Victims of War’but I think he has a point but would still like to add my voice – late as it is – to this discussion.

He’s right of course. The Poppy as we know it does insult the Victims of War – and most of us know that you are at a far greater risk of being killed in an area of armed conflict as a civilian, rather than as a military combatant.

And he’s right about only service personnel being remembered and to a greater degree honoured. I also posit that the Royal British Legion extols war and glorifies it.

The history of wearing the Red Poppy as a mark of remembrance came out of Lieutenant-Colonel John McCrae’s poem ‘In Flanders Fields’ which he wrote after seeing these red poppies bloom in their thousands on the battlefields of World War I. McCrae’s poem inspired an American lady, Moira Mitchell to make and sell silk poppies which were brought to England by a French woman named Anna Guérin. The Royal British Legion (formed in 1921) ordered nine million and sold them on November 11. They sold out almost immediately.

There is more information on the Royal British Legion’s website: www.BritishLegion.org.uk.

However, despite what the Royal British Legion write on their website, I also believe that the Poppy Appeal is not for victims of war, but to support the institution of war.

One is tempted to remember the Swastika. In India the Swastika is a symbol of good luck and prosperity; in many first editions of his books Rudyard Kipling has a swastika on the spine – but mention the word ‘Swastika’ now and all people think about are Nazis. By taking the Swastika's image, Adolf Hitler destroyed its positive meaning for many generations and even today its positive roots are largely forgotten. This is an example of a symbol being co-opted and used for reasons not linked to its original meaning, and because of its use as a symbol of the Nazis during World War II that is one of the main reasons it is remembered at all. If we were to replace the Red Poppy with the White; while this would seem to be a good move – the Red Poppy might become associated with War and the institution of War. By aligning the Red Poppy with warmongers and villainous institutions we are in danger of doing a similar thing to this symbol as Hitler did to the Swastika. While the Royal British Legion has its problems, there may be some who genuinely mean well and collect for it with only the best in mind - the people who work for it and give it their best cannot be blamed for its overriding philosophy. It is also a fact now that the Red Poppy is associated with Remembrance Day and it has become a Focus for the country – perhaps not always a good one – but a Focus nevertheless.

I do not believe when the Red Poppy was first conceived made and sold it was intended simply to glorify the institution of war; and while now many of its motives are suspect and its policies nefarious its aim was not to be an ‘Insult to the Victims of War’. I believe it was begun as a way to honour and remember the dead and as a symbol of those who fought – on both sides – in the conflict. From that perspective, perhaps wearing a White Poppy would be a more proper response to the concept of Remembrance. As Sir Laurence Olivier says in the very last episode of ‘The World At War’ – and emblazoned across the screen so it would be impossible not to read is the word: REMEMBER. Perhaps we have forgotten that single word, to Remember that there are many more victims of war than the soldiers and that the wearing of the Red Poppy only honours the soldiers.

I have yet to find a piece of jewellery that encompasses both the Red and the White Poppy and I must confess I’m still looking. Maybe when I’m a bit more confident with my soldering skills, I shall make my own. By all means wear the Red Poppy on November 11; wear the White Poppy on November 11. Wear the White to remember the victims – of all the conflicts still raging across the globe; but wear the Red to remember those who fought and died in all Conflicts – and yes, we can remember them all.