From late October, red paper poppies appear on lapels across Britain. They are sold by the Royal British Legion in aid of the armed forces community, and the campaign raises tens of millions of pounds a year.
Why a poppy
Because it was what grew. The churned, shell-torn ground of Flanders and northern France disturbed dormant seed, and the battlefields came up scarlet the following spring. The Canadian military doctor John McCrae wrote In Flanders Fields in 1915 after burying a friend, and the image fixed itself.
An American academic, Moina Michael, read the poem and began wearing and selling silk poppies to raise funds. A French woman, Anna Guérin, took the idea to Britain, and the newly formed British Legion held its first Poppy Appeal in 1921. It sold out immediately.
The Poppy Factory
A detail that is genuinely central to the appeal. Since 1922 the Poppy Factory in Richmond, Surrey has been staffed by disabled ex-servicemen and women, originally wounded veterans of the First World War.
It still produces millions of poppies, wreaths and remembrance crosses a year, and it now also runs an employability service placing veterans with health conditions into work across the country. Scotland has its own factory in Edinburgh, producing a slightly different poppy — four petals and no leaf, against the English two petals and a green leaf.
What the money does
The Legion supports serving personnel, veterans and their families with:
- Financial hardship grants and benefits advice.
- Recovery and rehabilitation for the wounded.
- Mental health support, including for PTSD.
- Care homes and independent living.
- Help with housing, employment and — a substantial part of the work — with the transition out of the forces.
The annual argument
Britain has this row every year, and it has two halves.
“Poppy fascism” — a phrase coined by the broadcaster Jon Snow — describes the social pressure on public figures to wear one. Every television presenter puts one on for the season, and anyone who does not is liable to be criticised in newspapers and online. The Legion has stated repeatedly and clearly that wearing a poppy is a personal choice and should never be compulsory.
The white poppy, worn by the Peace Pledge Union since 1933, commemorates all victims of war and expresses a commitment to peace. Some regard it as a slight on the red; others wear both. Purple poppies mark animals killed in war, and black poppies recognise African, Black and Caribbean contributions.
How to wear it
There is no official rule, despite persistent claims otherwise. The Legion’s position is simply that it should be worn with pride, and that where the leaf points is a matter of preference rather than protocol.
They are given in exchange for a donation rather than sold at a fixed price, and collectors — most of them volunteers, many of them elderly veterans standing in supermarket entrances in November — are a fixture of the British autumn.