Remembrance And Poppies

There are misinformed people who think that the Poppy of Armistice Day glorifies war. A little knowledge and a few minutes search would tell them it does not and is a way of acknowledging the horrors of World War One and other wars since.

The poppy is to remind us of those we knew and lost especially when the remains were never found. They are taken from the sight of many of the battlefields where in the ruins that were left, they were among the first plants to appear giving rise to fields of the fallen that became fields of poppies.

I knew people from World War One who understood that meaning among them my grandfather who became a stretcher bearer on the front line. I have the poppy for him, his comrades and all those who did not return. Also, for those I knew personally in World War Two who were lost and the many others.

On Remembrance Day 1955 I paraded with the 7th Armoured Division in Germany. During World War Two, the Division, created in 1942 and in action to May 1945, was remanned four times. So some fifty thousand plus had been in a formation of some 15,000 in strength.

We were just along the road from where the Belsen-Bergen camp had been and poppies were there as well.