General News
18 November, 2025
Lest we forget
November 11 2025 is the 107th year since the ceasefire on the Western Front in 1918; known then as Armistice Day.
November 11 2025 is the 107th year since the ceasefire on the Western Front in 1918; known then as Armistice Day.
Since then it has become an international day of remembrance, to remember and honour all defence personnel whose service has been in ALL wars or peacekeeping operations.
In the Spring of 1919 the churned up blood stained battlefields of Flanders: Northern France and Belgium, a mass of vivid red poppies appeared on the scared landscape.
They were seen as a reminder of the blood from the horrendous loss of life during World War One (WW1).
The red poppy has become a universal symbol of remembrance for wartime sacrifice, service and suffering; a fitting tribute for duty nobly done.
That symbol remains strong today.
The Poppy Appeals commenced with the sale of artificial poppies by Great Britain and the Commonwealth Nations and their Allies in 1921.
The money raised was to support welfare benefits for WW1 exservicemen.
In Australia, the Australian Returned Sailors Soldiers Imperial League, now the RSL, imported one million silk poppies from France.
These were made by French war orphans.
At the same time, American humanitarian Moina Michael started a campaign to promote wearing the red poppy as a symbol of remembrance and honour for those who served in war.
She was moved by John McCrae’s poem “In Flanders Fields”. Major John McCrae was a Canadian doctor stationed near Ypres, Belgium.
He penned his poem in 1916, in memory for the loss of a friend. It was published in London in 1918.
On November 9, 1918 Moina wrote a poem titled “We Shall Keep the Faith “. She was responding for the living taking up the call of the dead.
The motivation coming from the words of the first line in the last verse of John McCrae’s poem “In Flanders Fields “: “To you from failing hands we throw the Torch; be yours to hold it high.”
Also in 1921, Canadian lady Lillian Freiman started making red cloth poppies in the living room of her home; becoming the start of an industry. She led the annual poppy campaign in Ottawa until her death. (November 2, 1940, aged 55).
We wil remember them.
LEST WE FORGET.