Don't Forget Them

In remembrance of the millions who have died in war.

  Creative criticism would be really appreciated.

 
In the spring of 1915, shortly after losing a friend in Ypres, a Canadian doctor, Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae was inspired by the sight of poppies growing in battle-scarred fields to write a now famous poem called 'In Flanders Fields'. After the First World War, the poppy was adopted as a symbol of Remembrance.

McCrae’s poem inspired an American academic, Moina Michael, to make and sell red silk poppies which were brought to England by a French woman, Anna Guérin. The (Royal) British Legion, (formed in 1921) ordered 9 million of these poppies and sold them on 11 November that year. The poppies sold out almost immediately, that first ever 'Poppy Appeal' raised over £106,000; a considerable amount of money at the time. This was used to help WW1 veterans with employment and housing.

The following year, Major George Howson set up the Poppy Factory to employ disabled ex-Servicemen. Today, the factory and the Legion's warehouse in Aylesford produces millions of poppies each year.

The demand for poppies in England was so high that few were reaching Scotland. Earl Haig's wife established the 'Lady Haig Poppy Factory' in Edinburgh in 1926 to produce poppies exclusively for Scotland. Over 5 million Scottish poppies (which have four petals and no leaf unlike poppies in the rest of the UK) are still made by hand by disabled ex-Servicemen at Lady Haig's Poppy Factory each year and distributed by Poppyscotland.

 The poem 

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.

 I wanted to also acknowledge the fact many LGBT people lost their lives during not just the First World War (something many history books about the war forget to mention) but plenty of wars before and since, so I created one poppy with the colours of the LGBT (rainbow) flag.

   Trans is an umbrella term to refer to someone who does not identify with their assigned gender at birth, their biological sex or the binary gender system. This can includes transsexuals, trangender, cross-dressers, genderqueer, drag kings, drag queens,transvestite, genderqueer, genderfluid, non-binary, genderless, agender, non-gendered, third gender, bi-gender. There are many transpeople who have served (and still do) in the armed forces and have died serving their country. I felt when creating my version of these remembrance poppies that the Trans flag should be one of the identified poppies to acknowledge that despite serving their country the same as their straight (and lesbian, gay, and bisexual) colleagues  Trans people are subject to Transphobia from both sides.

 The fourth Poppy is made of a military American and UK dogtag (as far as I am aware the UK tag is round and the US tag is more square - I don't know of other countries having different shapes then these) with a bullet hole through them, as many people I know see the red poppy as relating only to the World Wars rather then including more recent battles or current wars. Hence I felt using dogtags to create a poppy might help connect the iconic image of remembrance with modern day conflicts.

 Created using Corel Draw I hope this is in the right folder, let me know if it's not.