The year 2021 marked the 100th anniversary of an organisation – the Royal British Legion – founded in England to support members and ex-members of the British Army, Royal Navy and Royal Air Force. Many postage stamps have been issued to commemorate the First World War and the stamps shown here also make a bow to various anniversaries of the Royal British Legion.

By 1921, three years after the end of the First World War, the tradition of a Two Minute Silence had been established in Great Britain. To date, across the UK, at 11:00 on the 11th of November the two minute silence is observed. It marks the time and date when the World War One armistice came into effect. But why does the red poppy play such an important part in the story?

During the First World War (1914-1918), much of the fighting took place in Western Europe. The countryside was blasted, bombed and fought over repeatedly. Previously beautiful landscapes turned to mud; bleak and barren scenes where little or nothing could grow. There was a notable and striking exception to the bleakness – the bright red Flanders poppies. These resilient flowers flourished in the middle of so much chaos and destruction, growing in the thousands upon thousands. In the Spring of 1915, shortly after losing a friend in the battle for Ypres, a Canadian doctor, Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae was moved by the sight of these poppies and that inspired lhim to write the poem ‘In Flanders Fields’. If you are not familiar with the poem here are McCrae’s extremely moving words:

“In Flanders Fields” by John McCrae

In Flanders’ fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place: and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders’ fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe;
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high,
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders’ Fields.

The spread of the poppy as a symbol involved a French woman, Anna Guérin who was in England in 1921 and planned to sell the poppies in London. There she met the British Legion’s founder, Field Marshal Earl Haig, who was persuaded to adopt the poppy as the Legion’s emblem in the UK. And so the first ever Poppy Appeal was held in 1921. The poppies sold out almost immediately and raised over £106,000 – a considerable amount at the time. This money was used to help WW1 veterans with employment and housing. Virtually every postage stamp issued to commemorate anniversaries of the Royal British Legion features a poppy.

On the Isle of Man 18p stamp above is a scene from London’s Royal Albert Hall, where a Festival of Remembrance is held annually.