Poppies On Sale Today

Year 5&6 pupils will be selling poppies this week to mark Remembrance Day. Please send in money for a donation so that we can support this excellent cause.

Did you know this...

The First World War finally came to an end in November 1918, when an Armistice was declared, so that peace terms could be arranged. At 11am on November 11th, the last shot of the war was fired. For many years afterwards Armistice Day was observed on the 11th November, but now it is known as Remembrance Sunday, and is held always on the second Sunday in November.

An American lady, Miss Moina Michael, had read the poem and was greatly impressed, particularly by the last verse. The wearing of a poppy appeared to her to be the way to keep faith, and she wrote the reply:

"THE VICTORY EMBLEM"

Oh! You who sleep in Flanders' fields,
Sleep sweet - to arise anew;
We caught the torch you threw,
And holding high we kept
The faith with those who died.

We cherish too, the Poppy red
That grows on fields where valor led,
It seems to signal to the skies
That blood of heroes never dies,
But lends a lustre to the red
Of the flower that blooms above the dead
In Flanders' fields.

And now the torch and poppy red
Wear in honour of our dead.
Fear not that ye have died for naught:
We've learned the lesson that ye taught
In Flanders' fields.

On November 9th 1918, only two days before the Armistice was signed, Miss Michael was presented with a small gift of money by some of the overseas War Secretaries of the YMCA for whom she worked, and whose Conference was being held at her house. She told them about the two poems, and announced that she was going to buy 25 red poppies with the money. This she did; she wore one herself, and each Secretary there bought one from her. It is claimed, probably rightly, that this was the first group selling of poppies.