Page 40 - Essex Mason (Issue 87) Online Version

Remembrance Day

THE ORIGINS OF THE POPPY

The poppy which is the recognised symbol of remembrance was inspired by the poem “In Flanders Fields “ written by John McCrae
in 1915 and later published in 1917.
Major John McCrae was a Doctor serving with the 1st Brigade Canadian Field Artillery at the second battle of Ypres between April-May
1915. After the death of his friend Lt Alexis Helmer whose funeral service he conducted as the Brigade Chaplain was busy elsewhere
he drafted this poem when viewing the wooden crosses with vivid red poppies springing up between them.
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 among 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.
An American lady Moina Michael was working at the YMCA Overseas War Secretaries office in New York in 1918 and was so inspired
by McCrae`s poem that she vowed to pin a poppy to her lapel to honour and revere the war dead. She then purchased 25 silk poppies
and distributed them to her work colleagues and this led within 2 years to the American Legion adopting the poppy as the official
symbol of remembrance in 1920.

At the American Legion Conference in New York a French representative Madame E. Guerin witnessed the sale of these poppies
and took the idea back to France as a means to raise money for children affected by the Great War. Madam Guerin organised a
team of war widows to make paper poppies which saw sales in excess of 1 million by 1921.
Madam Guerin sent a team of poppy sellers to London in an effort to popularise the appeal in the United Kingdom which was
favourably received. Field Marshall Douglas Haig who was a founder of the Royal British Legion and a veteran commander of the
British Forces was so enthused by the idea that he had it adopted almost immediately and the first ever poppy day occurred on
November 11th 2021.

The poppy rapidly outgrew its American roots being adopted by Canada and Australia in 1921, followed by New Zealand in 1922.
“Red is the leaf and the blood ,black is the heart of sorrow.”

Festival of Remembrance

Tabor Academy in Braintree

he RWProvGM and members of the Executive,
Taccompanied by two Provincial Grand
Standard Bearers, attended the 9th Festival of
Remembrance organised and run every year at
the Tabor Academy in Braintree by their Estates
Manager, Bro. David Wiles of Rosslyn Lodge No.
1543.
The ceremony was first held as a tribute to a former pupil, Lance Corporal Scott Hardy of The Royal
Anglian Regiment, who was killed in action in Afghanistan in 2010 but continues each year supported
by Her Majesty’s Lord Lieutenant of Essex, members of the local community, Local Government officials
(MP’s, Mayors), serving Armed Forces, local Police and Fire Service Chiefs, the Royal British Legion
from Haig House in London and Essex County Officers and veterans from all conflicts. Representative
Essex Freemasons have been invited since 2015 and have always featured high on the list of VIP’s
and in recent years have attended with our Standard Bearers who are invited to join the procession of
Royal British Legion Standard Bearers led by W.Bro Gordon Roach, also of Rosslyn Lodge.
This year W.Bro Alan Brown, the Secretary of Thames Mouth Lodge No. 6694 loaned the school a scale model of the Cenotaph in
Whitehall, made by W.Bro Steve Zetter of that lodge and used by them every year in their own Remembrance Tribute, which took
centre-stage.
It was an honour and a privilege to join the VIP’s and 1,000 students at such a well organised and moving tribute, the format of which
changes every year, and a great way to normalise Freemasonry in the Community.

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