November 8, 1995. Copyright, 1995, Graphic News. All rights reserved

POPPY DAY Ð HOW IT ALL BEGAN 
By Julie Hacking

LONDON, November 8, Graphic News- The immortality of the Flanders poppy as the flower of remembrance for the dead of two world wars is due to Colonel John McCrae, who before World War 1 had been a distinguished professor of medicine at McGill University, Montreal. During a lull in the fighting at the battle of Ypres in 1915, he wrote a short poem, beginning with the lines:
ÔIn FlandersÕ fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses row on rowÉÕ
The three verse poem was sent to and published anonymously in Punch. Colonel McCrae survived the horrors of Ypres but was seriously wounded in January 1918 and died in hospital three days later. 
The poem made a deep impression on an American lady, Moina Michael, who decided that wearing a red poppy was a good way to keep faith with all those who had lost their lives. On November 9, 1918, two days before the Armistice was signed, Miss Michael, who worked for the YMCA, held a conference at her home for some of that organisationÕs overseas War Secretaries. They presented her with a small gift of money, which she announced she would use to buy poppies, wearing one herself, while each of the others bought one from her Ð the first group selling of poppies. The French Secretary, Madame Guerin, developed the idea further, visiting various parts of the world to suggest that artificial poppies should be made and sold to help ex-serviceman and their dependants in need.
The first Poppy Day in Britain was held in 1921Ð the poppies bought from the French organisation who used the profits to help children in war-devastated areas. The following year the newly-formed British Legion opened its own factory in Bermondsey with a staff of five disabled ex-servicemen. This was greatly encouraged by Field Marshall Earl Haig, founder-president of the British Legion, who believed that providing work for disabled ex-servicemen was just as important as raising money.
Today the Royal British Legion employs a staff of 115 ex-service men and women at much bigger premises in Richmond, producing 40,000,000 poppies, 88,000 wreaths and 350 Remembrance crosses each year.
The first Poppy appeal in 1921 raised £106,000. In 1994, the total reached £15.2 million, up nine per cent on the previous year, and provided benefits to over 100,000 people.

Source: Royal British Legion