Sunday WW1 Remembered ...

The Poppies Wave and Weeping Window designed by Paul Cummins and Tom Piper have been on tour around the UK since July 2015. The two sculptures were initially part of the Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red at the Tower of London in the summer and autumn of 2014. 

© J Barton

IWM North is currently hosting Wave whilst IWM London is hosting Weeping Window

At the end of the tour in December 2018 both of the installations will be preserved for the nation and will become part of the IWM collection with Wave remaining at IWM North in Salford and Weeping Window at IWM London.

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On a glorious autumn day this week I visited the Poppy : Wave installation at the Imperial War Museum North at Salford Quays. 

© Digital Images

People stood quietly, some in contemplation, others walking around the installation to view from different angles, many taking photographs on mobile phones and digital cameras. On every face I saw respect for the thousands of war dead who were represented by each of the scarlet poppies that cascaded in a graceful arch, each symbolising a life which was lost forever.

© Digital Images

Find out more about the poppies on the 14-18Now Website

or visit IWM North where the poppies can be seen until the 25 November

Follow the Poppies on Twitter #PoppiesTour

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Sunday WW1 Remembered...

As we move ever slowly towards to the cessation of hostilities on the Western Front on the 11th day of the 11th month in 1918, I am reminded of this post I shared in 2015, about Moina Michael who was so inspired by the poem In Flanders Fields by Colonel John McCrae that she made a personal pledge to 'keep the faith'. She felt compelled to make a note of this pledge and hastily scribbled down a response entitled “We Shall Keep the Faith” on the back of a used envelope. From that day she vowed to wear a red poppy of Flanders Fields as a sign of remembrance. 

We Shall Keep the Faith

Oh ! You who sleep in Flanders Fields,

Sleep sweet - to rise anew!

We caught the torch you threw

And holding high, we keep the Faith

With All 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

We wear in honor of our dead.

Fear not that ye have died for naught;

We'll teach the lesson that ye wrought

In Flanders Fields

She went on to use the idea of the delicate poppy flower to raise funds for ex-servicemen returning from the First World War.

Moina's fascinating autobiography, "The Miracle Flower, The Story of the Flanders Fields Memorial Poppy” was published in 1941. Moina dedicates the book to the late Colonel John McCrae, whose poem ‘In Flanders Fields’ was the inspiration for her idea of the Flanders Fields Memorial Poppy. 

As a result of Moina Michael's tireless campaigning, her complete dedication to the cause and the inspiration her idea gave to others, the delicate flower of the red field poppy has become an internationally-recognized symbol of Remembrance and welfare for war veterans.

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For those who like fictional novels set during WW1, I can recommend the historical novel I featured on the blog yesterday. You can find my review of The Poppy Field by Deborah Carr by following this link.

It's currently just 99p Amazon Kindle 

Harper Impulse
12 October 2018

Sunday WW1 Remembered..

This week The Royal British Legion has launched its 2017 Poppy Appeal

The Poppy Appeal supports the Armed Forces community, past and present.

The bright red Flanders poppy is a hardy flower. Flourishing in the dark and gloomy days of war, it would spring up in unexpected corners of foreign fields.

In 1915 Lieutenant Colonel John Macrae was inspired by the sight of hundreds of these beautiful red poppies to write his now famous poem 'In Flanders Fields'..

In Flanders fields the poppies blow

Between the crosses, row on row,

That mark our place..

The poem inspired an American Academic, Moina Micheal to make and sell red silk poppies, and when this idea was brought to the UK by a French woman, Anna Guérin, the British Legion bought 9 million of them and sold the poppies on Armistice Day,11th of November, raising £106,000, which was a vast amount of money in 1921.

In 1922, The Poppy Factory was set up by Major George Hewson and employed disabled ex-service men. Today the factory in Aylesford produces millions of poppies each year.

The poppy remains a symbol of hope and remembrance.

Follow on Twitter @PoppyLegion

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Sunday - WW1 Remembered...

It was always my intention to continue this small corner of remembrance to the service of those who lived through, or who fought and died, during the First World War. After all, the war lasted until 1918, so I've still a way to go before I need to start winding up this tribute.

This year will be slightly different in that, as well as looking for those forgotten poems which sum up national feeling and fervour, I will also share interesting articles and feature reviews of WW1 books I have read or which have inspired me in my quest to discover more about the Great War. I'm a regular visitor to the Imperial War Museum North and will keep a watch for any interesting exhibitions to feature.

I'll start this new collection of WW1 remembrance with photographs from a recent visit to Liverpool to view the Weeping Window of Poppies which was on tour during 2015. You may remember the overwhelming exhibition of 888,246 ceramic poppies at the Tower of London in 2014 to mark the centenary of the start of WW1.

During 2015, three locations were chosen to host the installation of this exhibition of ceramic poppies; Yorkshire Sculpture Park, Woodhorn Museum in Northumberland and St George’s Hall, Liverpool. The sculpture comprises approximately 10,000 poppies, and was designed by Paul Cummins and Tom Piper. The Weeping Window can be seen in Liverpool until the 17 January 2016.

More about WW1 Art commemorations here at the 14-18 Now WW1 Centenary Art Commissions.

Liverpool's iconic St.George's Hall, with its significance as a WW1 recruiting station, made a stunning backdrop for the Weeping Window.

And as a cooling breeze catches the poppies they shudder and sigh and in the whisper of the wind you can sense them watching..



In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place....

John McCrae, 1915.



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Sunday War Poet..

Break of Day in the Trenches

 by 

Isaac Rosenberg

The darkness crumbles away.

It is the same old druid Time as ever,

Only a live thing leaps my hand,

A queer sardonic rat,

As I pull the parapet’s poppy

To stick behind my ear.

Droll rat, they would shoot you if they knew

Your cosmopolitan sympathies.

Now you have touched this English hand

You will do the same to a German

Soon, no doubt, if it be your pleasure

To cross the sleeping green between.

It seems you inwardly grin as you pass

Strong eyes, fine limbs, haughty athletes,

Less chanced than you for life,

Bonds to the whims of murder,

Sprawled in the bowels of the earth,

The torn fields of France.

What do you see in our eyes

At the shrieking iron and flame

Hurled through still heavens?

What quaver — what heart aghast?

Poppies whose roots are in man’s veins

Drop, and are ever dropping;

But mine in my ear is safe —

Just a little white with the dust.

Isaac Rosenberg was an English poet and writer. His WW1 Poems from the Trenches are considered to be some of the most outstanding poems of the war period. In 1916 he was sent with his battalion, The King's Own Lancaster Regiment to the Western Front.

He was killed on 1 April 1918.



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Sunday War Poet...

We Shall Keep the Faith

Moina Michael

Oh ! You who sleep in Flanders Fields,

Sleep sweet - to rise anew!

We caught the torch you threw

And holding high, we keep the Faith

With All 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

We wear in honor of our dead.

Fear not that ye have died for naught;

We'll teach the lesson that ye wrought

In Flanders Fields

Moina Belle Michael

1869-1944

Having read John McCrae’s poem - In Flanders Fields - Moina Michael made a personal pledge to 'keep the faith'. She felt compelled to make a note of this pledge and hastily scribbled down a response entitled “We Shall Keep the Faith” on the back of a used envelope. From that day she vowed to wear a red poppy of Flanders Fields as a sign of remembrance. 

She went on to use the idea of the delicate poppy flower to raise funds for ex-servicemen returning from the First World War.

Moina's fascinating autobiography, ”The Miracle Flower, The Story of the Flanders Fields Memorial Poppy” was published in 1941. Moina dedicates the book to the late Colonel John McCrae, whose poem ‘In Flanders Fields’ was the inspiration for her idea of the Flanders Fields Memorial Poppy. 

As a result of Moina Michael's tireless campaigning, her complete dedication to the cause and the inspiration her idea gave to others, the delicate flower of the red field poppy has become an internationally-recognized symbol of Remembrance and welfare for war veterans. 

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Sunday War Poet...

My Tower of London poppy arrived this week.

It's a little piece of history to treasure forever.

The Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red

In Flanders Fields, by John McRae

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 amid 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.

Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae

1872 - 1918

A Canadian doctor, poet, author and soldier . He was a physician and worked as a surgeon during the 

second battle of Ypres, in Belgium. He died from pneumococcus meningitis in 1918 whilst commanding the No 3 Canadian General Hospital in Boulogne.


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You can see a little more about  my Tower of London poppy

here

Winter Poppy



Over the next four Sundays in January
my theme will be poppies.


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Armistice Day....

The eleventh hour of the eleventh month in 1918 saw the signing of the Armistice at Compiègne in France which marked the end of hostilities on the Western Front of World War One.

Today we remember.

Like sentinels they stand. 

A crimson tide set against the smoothness of ancient stones,

An army of remembrance.

And with hearts weeping tears like rain, 

We gather together the lost ones and the loved ones,

And remember that for our tomorrow they gave their today.

© J. A. Barton

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In Our Family - We Remember

Private John Hopkins

The Loyal North Lancashire Regiment

Died 24 January 1919

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The five Whalley brothers who went to fight in the Great War 
and
who all returned safely home.

Driver Frederick Arkwright

Royal Army Service Corps

Died 1 February 1945

Buried Schoonselhof Cemetery 
Antwerp, Belgium

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