![]() Over 5 million Scottish poppies are made by hand each year. In 1926 Lady Haig’s Poppy Factory in Edinburgh was established to produce poppies for Scotland. Those first poppies were made in France, but from 1922 British veterans made the poppies at the Richmond factory which now employs 50 ex-servicemen all year round. Although the idea was initially not well received by the British public, the WW1 British Army commander Earl Haig was keen, and after that, when the Royal British Legion held its first Poppy Day on 11 th November 1921, it was a great success. The poppies would be made by French widows and orphans and raise funds for the families of the fallen as well as survivors of the conflict. In 1921 she took samples of her artificial poppies to the Royal British Legion and proposed an Inter-Allied Poppy Day during which all WW1 allied countries use artificial poppies as an emblem of remembrance. The original Poppy Days were created by Madame Guerin to raise funds for the French widows and orphans of the War. This year is the centenary of the UK Poppy Appeal. Furthermore, sales from the poppies go to providing financial, social and emotional support to British Armed Forces serving soldiers, former soldiers and their dependents. ![]() Importantly this is when the Armistice (an agreement to end the fighting) began at 11am on 11 th November 1918. In the United Kingdom, artificial poppies are sold by the Royal British Legion in the run-up to 11 th November (Poppy Day). Subsequently, Since WW1 the poppy has become the universal emblem of remembrance, symbolising the sacrifices that soldiers in past wars made for us. One soldier, Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae was inspired to write the poem, In Flanders Fields, in the spring of 1915. As the soldiers saw scarlet poppies bloom through the terrible destruction, they were encouraged to see that life could recover. ![]() One of the plants that survived the churned-up battlefields was the poppy. The battles of the First World War (WWI) devastated the countryside of Western Europe. Source World War One, Remembrance Day and The Poppy
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