The poppy

With Remembrance Day quickly approaching, I thought I'd touch upon the ubiquitous symbol of sacrifice in Canada: the poppy. I received an e-mail about this and was surprised to find we've written very little about the significance of the poppy at this time of year. Time to rectify that.

The Royal Canadian Legion website tells us a bit about why the poppy was originally associated with death on the battlefield:

The association of the Poppy to those who had been killed in war has existed since the Napoleonic Wars in the 19th century, over 110 years before being adopted in Canada. There exists a record from that time of how thickly Poppies grew over the graves of soldiers in the area of Flanders, France. This early connection between the Poppy and battlefield deaths described how fields that were barren before the battles exploded with the blood-red flowers after the fighting ended.

Just prior to the First World War, few Poppies grew in Flanders. During the tremendous bombardments of that war, the chalk soils became rich in lime from rubble, allowing “popaver rhoes” to thrive. When the war ended, the lime was quickly absorbed and the Poppy began to disappear again.

LCol Dr. John McCrae immortalized that association in the words of his famous poem "In Flanders Fields" (from which the title of this blog is taken):

In April 1915, John McCrae was stationed near Ypres, Belgium, the area traditionally called Flanders. It was there, during the Second Battle of Ypres, that some of the fiercest fighting of the First World War occurred. Working from a dressing station on the banks of the Yser Canal, dressing hundreds of wounded soldiers from wave after wave of relentless enemy attack, he observed how “we are weary in body and wearier in mind. The general impression in my mind is of a nightmare.”

In May, 1915, on the day following the death of fellow soldier Lt Alexis Helmer of Ottawa, John McCrae wrote his now famous work, an expression of his anguish over the loss of his friend and a reflection of his surroundings – wild Poppies growing amid simple wooden crosses marking makeshift graves. These 15 lines, written in 20 minutes, captured an exact description of the sights and sounds of the area around him.

Lieutenant-Colonel John McCrae left Ypres with these memorable few lines scrawled on a scrap of paper. His words were a poem which started, “In Flanders fields the poppies blow…” Little did he know then that these 15 lines would become enshrined in the innermost thoughts and hearts of all soldiers who hear them. Through his words, the scarlet Poppy quickly became the symbol for soldiers who died in battle.

The poem was first published on 8 December 1915 in England, appearing in “Punch” magazine.

Personally, I've always found it surprising that the impetus to maintain the poppy as an annual symbol of remembrance came from two women: one American and one French:

The adoption of the poppy as a symbol of remembrance has international origins. The first person to use it this way was Moina Michael, a member of the staff of the American Overseas YMCA in the last year of the war. Michael read McCrae's poem and was so moved that she composed one of her own in response. She recalled later: "In a high moment of white resolve, I pledged to keep the faith and always to wear a red poppy of Flanders Fields as a sign of remembrance and the emblem of 'keeping the faith with all who died.'"

Consequently, she led a successful campaign to have the American Legion recognize the poppy as the official symbol of remembrance in April 1920. At the same time, Madame Anne Guerin, of France, inspired both by McCrae's poem and by Moina Michael's example, also became a vigorous advocate of the poppy as the symbol of remembrance for war dead. Her own organization, the American and French Children's League, sold cloth copies of the flower to help raise money to re-establish war-devastated areas in Europe.

In 1921, Guerin travelled to Britain and Canada on behalf of the poppy and convinced both the recently formed British Legion and the Canadian Great War Veterans Association (a predecessor of the Canadian Legion) to adopt the poppy as their symbol of remembrance as well. The first 'Poppy Day' in both countries occurred on 11 November 1921. The Returned Soldiers League in Australia adopted the poppy as its symbol of remembrance the same year.

In Canada, the symbol is safeguarded by the Royal Canadian Legion - not without some controversy, mind you. The annual poppy campaign is certainly the most important fundraiser for the Legion:

The money raised from poppy sales provides direct assistance for ex-service people in financial distress, as well as funding for medical appliances and research, home services, care facilities, and numerous other purposes.

While there is no hard and fast rule about how to wear the poppy (I remember being told to pin it beside the cap-brass on my uniform glengarry years ago, for example), the Legion now strongly suggests that "the Poppy be worn on the left lapel of a garment or as close to the heart as possible." There's also no definitive rule about when to wear the poppy:

The official start of the Poppy Campaign is the last Friday in October and runs until November 11. Presentations of the poppies to dignitaries - for example, the Governor General, the Lieutenant Governors and Premiers - are normally made in advance of the official campaign start date. The distribution of poppies to the general public commences on the last Friday of October and can be worn at any time after that date.

...

Although it is tradition for the Poppy to be worn only during the annual Remembrance period, a person may wear a Poppy any time he or she wishes to do so. It is not unusual for Poppies to be worn at commemorative events throughout the year, particularly during Veterans Affairs Canada (VAC) pilgrimages. The best approach is to follow the lead of the event organizers. If you are organizing the event, you can seek advice from VAC senior officials or the Royal Canadian Legion.

The one good piece about the poppy written here previously was penned by VW a couple of years back, and a few points from it bear repeating:

It's important to understand one thing, although given the way our media environment works, it's easy to confuse the issue: wearing the poppy has nothing to do with "supporting the troops." Even if you don't like the idea of our people fighting in Afghanistan, you should still wear the poppy -- and not just because everyone else is doing it.

We wear the poppy to remember the sacrifices that our soldiers made in the Great Wars of the past: the two World Wars, Korea and to a smaller extent Vietnam. We also wear the poppy to remember the sacrifices made in the name of peacekeeping: Cyprus, Gaza and other operations.

We wear the poppy because we, the people, ask our fellow people in uniform to do things we wouldn't dream of doing, to go where the rest of us wouldn't want to go, to put their lives in jeopardy in situations we don't want to find ourselves in, and yes, sometimes to lose them. We wear the poppy to remember those people, in pasts both long and recent. We don't remember their politics, their beliefs, and sometimes not even the features on their faces, although some of us try. We remember that they existed, that they fought in a war Canada asked them to fight, that many of them died, and that our Canadian life exists today as a direct result.

"Supporting the troops," on the other hand, is more than remembering. It's making sure they have what they need to do the jobs we ask them to do. It's making sure they have some comfort to sustain them in a task that's harder than we can appreciate. Above all, it's demonstrating in all the right ways that we think they're doing a hard job and that they're doing it well.

The poppy, in short, is a fleeting symbol of history. "Supporting the troops" is an ongoing activity that doesn't stop on November 12th.

Hear, hear.