#poppyappeal

In response to Major John McCrae’s poem, In Flanders Field, Moina Bell Michael wrote the following excerpt:

That blood of heroes never dies,
But lends a lustre to the red
Of the flower that blooms above the dead
In Flanders’ Fields.
And now the torch and poppy red
Wear in honour of our dead
Fear not that ye have died for naught
We’ve learned the lesson that ye taught
In Flanders’ Fields.

We didn’t learn the lesson, but Moina began the custom of wearing a red poppy to remember ‘the blood of heroes’.

Starting as an American tradition, it soon became adopted in Great Britain. Anyone in the limelight not wearing a poppy pin has caused a scandal (even recently in the news).

Read more about the history and dos and don'ts of poppy etiquette HERE.