Remembrance Day

What does Remembrance Day commemorate?

In Canada, November 11 is called Remembrance Day. It is a day that marks the anniversary of the official end of World War I on November 11, 1918. The Great War, as it came to be known, was a massive conflict that was played out across the globe, particularly in Europe, where troops from Canada supported the Allied forces. This war, the first "modern" war, resulted in huge loss of life among military personnel and civilians with many, many more badly injured. Millions of people were killed - at sea and on battlefields across Europe, including 61,000 Canadians and Newfoundlanders. The war left great emotional scars on the servicemen who experienced it and in the communities whose sons, brothers, fathers, husbands, even grandfathers, had died.

Although Canada fought on the winning side, celebration of victory was replaced by solemn commemoration, and a sense that the country owed a collective national debt to the ordinary soldiers, mostly young men, who had lost their lives in the conflict. This debt would be paid, in perpetuity by successive generations, by the simple act of remembering the sacrifice of these men. After the second World War, Remembrance Day, also observed in many Commonwealth countries, serves to remember all those who died in military service since 1914 and to honour those who served in wartime.

Why did so many poppies appear during World War I?

The poppy is an enduring symbol of remembrance of the first World War. Its origin lies in the landscapes of the battlefields. Poppies were a common sight on the Western Front, but it was in the second year of the war - 1915 - that the first records appeared in letters sent home of no-man's land "ablaze" with scarlet poppies. From this time onwards, letters written by soldiers constantly referred to the fields of poppies and they featured heavily in soldiers' poems.

The poppies flourished in the soil churned up by the fighting and shelling. The flowers provided an almost shocking burst of colour in otherwise very bleak landscapes. Ironically, the battlefields provided the almost perfect conditions for poppies. Continual bombardment disturbed the soil, bringing the seeds to the surface. They were fertilized by nitrogen in the explosives and lime from the shattered rubble of the buildings. Most poignantly, the blood and bones of the millions of men, horses, mules, donkeys, dogs and other animals richly fertilized the soil. The longer the war continued, the more men and animals died, and the more the poppies thrived.  And they were everywhere.

The crimson swathes of poppies of course made a huge impact. Despite the blood spilled on those battlefields, the soldiers enjoyed looking at their fragile beauty and many took the fragile petals to press into letters home.

The surprising fact is that no man's land was also effectively a bird reserve with a barbed wire perimeter, "If it weren't for the birds, what a hell it would be" says one soldier. Experiences with birds, especially when they were singing in the lulls between the bombardments, lifted their spirits. "They offered a touch of Heaven in Hell."

In Flanders Fields

Among the millions of people who saw the poppies on the Western Front was a Canadian doctor called Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae. His early military training took place in today's Fort Frontenac, in Kingston. John McCrae fought in the South Africa War (1899 - 1902) leading D Battery, Canadian Field Artillery. When he left South Africa, it was with mixed feelings about war. He was still convinced of the need to fight for one's country but shocked by the poor treatment of the sick and injured soldiers. He resigned in 1904 and became a respected doctor, pathologist and teacher.

In August 1914, when war broke out in Europe, 45,000 Canadians joined up in the first three weeks - John McCrae was among them. He was appointed a medical officer with the First Brigade of the Canadian Field Artillery. In 1915, he was in the trenches near Ypres, Belgium in the area called Flanders which saw some of the heaviest fighting of the war. In the trenches very close to the front line, he was surrounded by the dead and dying as he tended hundreds of wounded soldiers every day and surrounded by the dead and the dying. He was deeply affected.

John McCrae wasn't an established writer, but he had had poems published back in Canada and as a military doctor he used what rest time he had to write poems in response to what he was experiencing during the war.

On May 2, 1915, one of his closest friends, Lieutenant Alexis Helmer of the Canadian Field Artillery, was blown to bits by an artillery bombardment. At his funeral the next day, McCrae stood in for the chaplain and took the service. Later that day, when he came off duty, McCrae sat in the back of an ambulance, and looking over the fresh graves and the wild poppies, penned a poem which would become one of the most famous of the First World War.   

Lieutenant-Colonel McCrae did not survive the war. He died of pneumonia and meningitis in January 1918, aged 45, while commanding No. 3 Canadian General Hospital in Boulogne and was buried with full military honours in Wimereux Cemetery, not far from Flanders. His horse, Bonfire, led the procession. His poem lives on and features in every Remembrance Day.  

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. 

Why do we wear poppies?

Artificial poppies were first sold in Britain in 1921 to raise money in support of ex-servicemen and the families of those who had died in conflict. Nine million red silk poppies went on sale on November 11 that year. The poppies sold out almost immediately and that first ever Poppy Appeal raised an enormous amount of money to help veterans of the Great War with employment and housing. Selling poppies proved so popular that in 1922, the British Legion founded a factory - staffed by disabled servicemen - to produce its own, which continues to this day.

The poppy began to symbolize the memory of the war dead and was initially seen as representing the souls of the dead.  The red poppy was adopted as the Flower of Remembrance for the war dead of Britain, France, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and other Commonwealth nations. Today millions of Canadians wear a red Poppy (on the left side, over the heart) as a visual pledge to never forget those who served and sacrificed in the Great War and in all military conflicts since. Today, the Poppy Campaign in Canada is one of the Royal Canadian Legion's most important programs. The money raised provides direct assistance for Veterans in financial distress, as well as funding for medical equipment, medical research, home services, and long-term care facilities and others. 

For children - The animated Poppy Story book (including the famous poem) - Video courtesy of PoppyScotland.

2022 Remembrance Day 

Wilton Cenotaph Remembrance Day Ceremony - Video courtesy of CFB Kingston