St Michael & All Angels, Bullington

The meaning of the red poppy

“In Flanders fields the poppies blow

between the crosses row on row

that marks our place; and in the sky

scarce heard amid the guns below.”

On the 22nd of April 1915, the Second Battle of Ypres began. It was an attempt by the German army to capture the strategic Belgium town and became notorious as the first battle of the First World War in which chemical gas was used as a weapon. The battle involved the French, British and battalions of the Canadian Expeditionary Force holding the line against a relentless German onslaught. On the 2nd May, Lieutenant Alexis Hemler of the First Canadian Field Artillery was killed by a six-inch-high explosive canon shell. He was buried by his good friend Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae. 16 Days later, on the 18th May, Gerald Howard Holbrooke, whose name we remember each year in Barton Stacey Church, and who was serving with the same Canadian Expeditionary Force near Ypres, was killed in action.

Sitting in the back of an ambulance at an Advanced Dressing Station outside Ypres, McCrae reflected on the loss of the life of his friend, Alexis Hemler and having noticed the proliferation of the red poppies that quickly grew in the chalky soil of the dead soldiers graves, he scribbled down those words that have now become immortalised across the Commonwealth, “In Flanders Fields the poppies grow between the crosses row on row…” Whether Private Gerald Holbrooke ever met Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae, we will never know but it is likely that he would have at least heard of McCrae as a senior serving officer. Holbrooke however, like Hemler, would never have the opportunity to read the lines of what is probably the most famous of the war poems.

“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.”

Inspired by McCrae’s poem, the American Professor Monica Michael resolved at the war’s conclusion in 1918 to always wear a red poppy to honour those who had lost their lives. She promoted the idea of doing the same amongst her friends and acquaintances by giving them silk poppies to wear. In 1921 the Royal British Legion was founded and its first President, Field Marshall Douglas Haig promoted Monica Michael’s red poppy and it was quickly adopted by the RBL both as a symbol of its work and also as a potential fundraiser.

“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.”

Since the 1920s and into the post-Second World War years the poppy has come to symbolise not only a special place in the heart of our nation for the honouring of our war dead, it has also come to symbolise the covenant relationship between the civilian population and the military community. This covenant relationship is one which is modelled for us in our own understanding of the relationship between God and his people. A covenant relationship is one which is binding, a bit like a marriage in which vows are exchanged with the intention of a life-long commitment. And so, the poppy reflects a living relationship in which those of us who live, continue to honour the memory of those who sacrificed their freedom for our democracy. And whilst honouring the sacrifice of those who are no longer with us, we honour too those of our military community who have pledged themselves to stand in harm’s way, should the call be made, to protect us, men, women and children who make up our civilian population.

Yet what we mean by ‘harm’s way’, and indeed what we mean by ‘warfare’ today is somewhat complicated. The trench warfare of Ypres reflected a way and means of fighting that was of its time. And though we may recognise something of this in the pulverizing of Syrian cities in our own day, our definition of warfare must now include acts of terrorism as we have experienced on our own streets in recent years, London Bridge and the Manchester Arena, and those who lost their lives there must now find a place amongst those who lost their lives at Ypres. The Royal British Legion has this year acknowledged that the affection and heartfelt sorrow that is carried in the wearing of the red poppy symbolises and must symbolise these innocent victims of the terrorist’s act of war too.

So today we wear our poppies with pride. We honour specifically the memory of those from our own community who gave their lives in the service of their country in the First and Second World Wars and in wars fought ever since then. And we hold in our hearts and prayers those serving with our armed forces today, mindful of the covenant relationship that binds us together. And we include today in our prayers those families and friends who have lost loved ones in recent years due to acts of terrorism.

“In Flanders fields the poppies blow

between the crosses row on row…”

On the 28th of January 1918, John McCrae died in a military hospital in Wimereux, not far from Boulogne in France, exhausted by the war, he contracted pneumonia and cerebral meningitis. The following year a book of his poems titled ‘In Flanders Fields’ was published. His life is commemorated in a museum dedicated to his life’s story in his hometown of Guelph near Ontario in Canada. As we remember those from our own community, so too we remember him.

“…we lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,

loved and were loved, and now we lie

in Flanders fields.”

Revd Mark Bailey

Remembrance Sunday 2019

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