A Day to Remember
The Commonwealth members have had a day to honour armed forces members who have died in the line of duty since the end of the First World War in 1919. Remembrance Day was observed on the 11th November as hostilities formally ended at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918. World War One officially ended with the signing of the Treaty of Versailles on 28 June 1919.
A remembrance poppy, an artificial flower worn in some countries, is produced by veterans’ associations. These flowers are exchanged for charitable donations, which give financial, social, and emotional support to members and veterans of the armed forces.
The link between war and poppies in Flanders can be found as early as the 19th century, in the book “The Scottish Soldiers of Fortune” by James Grant: There’s a description that says… In the Scots in Holland and Flanders at Neerwinden, in 1693, the brigade suffered heavy losses, and William was compelled again to give way before the white-coated infantry of France with the loss of 10,000 men.
“During many months after,” wrote the Earl of Perth to his sister, “The ground was strewn with skulls, bones of horses and men, and with fragments of hats, shoes, saddles, and holsters. The next summer the soil, fertilised by 20,000 corpses, broke forth into millions of scarlet poppies.”
The World War 1 poem written by Lt Col John McCrae, a Canadian army doctor, opening lines states: In Flanders’ Fields the poppies blow between the crosses, row on row. He wrote the poem after the funeral and burial of a friend killed in the Second Battle of Ypres. It was first published in Punch on 8th December 1915 and quickly became one of the most-read poems of the war.
Many years ago, I wrote an article, which was published in a Family history magazine, about Corporal Harry Andrews after buying a box of photograph albums at a car boot sale in 1999. Click on the photographs below to read the article.
G-AAXD Horatius of the Heracles Class. 
One of Harry’s brothers
Harry’s Grave in Cologne Southern Cemetery
