Poppy Worn With Pride

History of the Poppy Appeal:

On the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month in 1918, the First World War ended. Civilians wanted to remember the people who had given their lives for peace and freedom. An American War Secretary, Moina Michael, inspired by John McCrae's poem,"In Flanders' Fields", began selling poppies to friends to raise money for the ex-Service community. The Legion adopted the poppy for its fundraising in 1921 - and so the tradition began.

In 1922 Major George Howson, a young infantry officer, formed the Disabled Society to help disabled ex-Service men and women from the First World War. Howson suggested to the Legion that members of the Disabled Society could make poppies, and the Poppy Factory was subsequently founded in Richmond in 1922. The original poppy was designed so that workers with a disability could easily assemble it and this principle remains today.

From The Royal British Legion website.