1 October 2013

Please note: this news article is in our archive. Articles were correct at time of publication, but should not be relied on for accuracy after the passage of time.

NOW is the time to scatter field poppy seeds on ‘disturbed’ ground as part of a nationwide commemoration to mark next year’s anniversary of WWI.

The poppy became a symbol of the fallen after the publication of a  popular poem – In Flanders Fields – by Canadian army doctor Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae.

After personally burying a close friend who had died in battle, he noted how quickly poppies grew over the graves of the dead, and wrote his famous poem exhorting the living to carry on their fight.

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.