crich area community news
Royal British Legion - Crich and district branch
A reminder that we meet on the second Sunday of each month at our headquarters The Jovial Dutchman commencing 11.00am.
Membership is NOT restricted to ex-servicemen - anyone who is interested in joining, or assisting us in our work, will be more than welcome.
For further information please contact:
The Jovial Dutchman, 01773 852421
Branch Secretary M.G. Adderson 01773 857037
The first official Legion Poppy Day was held in Britain on 11 November 1921, inspired by the poem In Flanders' Fields written by John McCrae. Since then the Poppy Appeal has been a key annual event in the nation's calendar.
On the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month in 1918, the First World War ended. Civilians wanted to remember the people who had given their lives for peace and freedom. An American War Secretary, Moina Michael, inspired by John McCrae's poem, began selling poppies to friends to raise money for the ex-Service community. And so the tradition began.
In Flanders' Fields
- 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.
John McCrae, 1915