Poppy Day 70 years old

Ruapehu Bulletin, Volume 8, Issue 382, 16 April 1991, Page 4

Poppy Day 70 years old

"In Flanders fields the poppies blow Between the crosses, row onrow That mark our place; and in the sky The larks, still bravely singing, fly Scarce heard among the guns below" This opening stanza of a poem, scribbled on a page torn from a dispatch book by Canadian Colonel John McCrae, during the second battle of Ypres, and anonymously published in Punch in December 1915, was the seed that germinated into the poppy gaining recognition as the international emblem of remembrance.

Colonel McCrae, in civil life, a professor of medicine, eventually died of wounds in 1918, aged 46. Moina Michael, a compassionate American woman, was so touched by McCrae's words, she vowed to always wear a poppy. Later, after floating the idea with Madame Guerin, a French war Secretary, she visited many countries promoting a possible scheme that poppies should be made and sold to raise funds for the benefit of ex-servicemen and their dependants who were in need of financial assistance. Then in 1921, a group

of French war widows who were visiting England called on Field Marshal, Earl Haig, the British Commander-in-Chief during the Great War, and organiser of the British Legion as a means of helping the many thousands of men who had served under him in battle cope with the problems of their return to civil life. These women brought a supply of hand-made red poppies and suggested that they might be sold as a means of raising money to aid the distressed among those who had been incapacitated as a result of war. The French poppies were sold on the streets

of London by members of the fledgling British Legion on Armistice Day 11 November, 1921. The New Zealand Returned Soldiers' Association was quick to pick up the idea. To assist our own veterans who had fallen on bad times, they ordered 300,000 poppies from the new Earl Haig Poppy Factory in England. These were sold on the country's first Poppy Day 24 April 1922, the day before ANZAC Day. The first New Zealand made poppies were manufactured in 1928 by the Christchurch RSA who for many years shared the national task

with the Rehabilitation League. Currently Christchurch RSA has the sole manufacturing rights for the supply and distribution of poppies throughout the country. In New Zealand, the RSA Poppy Day appeal was originally established to benefit eligible returned service personnel and their dependants, who were in necessitous circumstances "Seventy years on and nothing has really changed," says Alan Johnston, NZRSA's Dominion president. "All the money so generously given each year on the Friday before ANZAC Day, is still

used exclusively for the welfare of those war veterans and their families who are in great need." "It doesn't matter whether they are RSA members or not," says Mr Johnston, "assistance hinges only on the recognition of a financial need. Each case presents its own distinctive set of unhappy circumstances, but the essential criterion is the determination of a positive need - rather than a want". Mr Johnston says each of the over 200 Returned Services' Associations which are affiliated to the NZRSA, conduct their own indi-

; vidual Poppy Day street ! appeals with all funds I collected being used for essential welfare purposes within the local area. "Poppy Day is one of our country's oldest established national street appeals," says Mr Johnston, "and the RSA sincerely thanks the people of New Zealand for their unstinting support over the last 70 years. I do hope their generosity continues into the future as there will always be a need to help those war veterans who are in less fortunate circumstances than ourselves."