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by Capt. Shemal Fernando RSP, USP, psc

In ancient Cathy, long before Marco Polo first saw its wonders and before Confucius lived to spread his philosophy of gentleness and understanding, there grew a flower from which was distilled a potent drug. It was white in colour and was known as the 'Flower of Forgetfulness'.

Timeless centuries passed; dynasties rose and fell. Babylon flowered and crumbled into dust. The Pharaohs lived their brief span and passed on. Europe emerged from her savagery and fair cities spread across her smiling landscape.

Then, out of the land of the white poppy, came Genghis Khan. His ravaging hordes, as they swept tumultuously westward, brought terror in their train, and wherever they passed, their men died. But something besides death they brought - it was a strange and awesome symbol in the wake of the Great Khan's blood-thirsty warriors, wherever the blood of man was spilled, the seeds of the 'Flower of Forgetfulness' put forth blooms.

However, a strange transformation had taken place. The 'White Flower of Forgetfulness' had turned blood red; and in the center of each flower was outlined a cross, as though nature herself was crying in protest at the wanton slaughter.

Through the centuries, stranger events occurred. Emperors and kings marched their armies across suffering Europe in bloody conflict and everywhere, on battlefields, which before had been bare wastes, there sprang up the poppy, it's symbol carpeting the graves of men who had died.

It was Lord McCauley who first drew attention to this strange symbolism and it was he who first suggested that the poppy should henceforth be known as the "Flower of Sacrifice and Remembrance."

In Flanders Fields

Lt. Col. John McCrae is the author of the famed poem, 'In Flanders Fields', written during the First World War. McCrae was more than a poet, and was in fact a doctor, soldier, author and artist. He was born in 1872 and raised in Guelph, Ontario and is remembered as one of Guelph's most famous sons.

John's early education was received in Guelph, first at Central Public School and subsequently at Guelph Collegiate Institute. He joined the Highland Cadet Corps which was affiliated with the Guelph Collegiate at the age of 14. One year later, McCrae became a bugler in the local militia regiment of artillery commanded by his father. He later joined this same regiment as a gunner.

At the age of 16, John was awarded a scholarship to the University of Toronto due to his academic achievement at collegiate. While at university John maintained his military ties with the No. 2 Battery in Guelph.

He graduated at the top of his class in medicine at the university and in 1899 was awarded a fellowship in pathology to McGill University in Montreal.

When the First World War began in 1914, McCrae again offered his services to the military. He had previously served as a gunner in the South African War. However, the powers-that-be decided that his abilities could be used to better advantage, and so he landed in France as a Brigade Surgeon of Canadian Field Artillery.

It was after performing the services of a friend, Alexis Helmer that McCrae was inspired to write 'In Flanders Fields'. The poem was written on May 3, 1915 and first published in Punch Magazine on December 8, 1915. He first described the Flanders Poppy as the "Flower of Remembrance".

Flanders was the region now covered by the Belgian provinces of East and West Flanders, the French Department of Nord and part of the Dutch province of Zeeland. Thousands of soldiers who died at the battlefront in France were buried there.

At the second Battle of Ypres in 1915, when in charge of a small first-aid post during a lull in the action, Lt. Col. McCrae wrote, in pencil, on a page torn from his despatch book:

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
We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt down, 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.

In January 1918, while serving in Canadian General Hospital in France, McCrae became ill with pneumonia, which was soon complicated by meningitis. On the third evening he was wheeled to the balcony of his room to look over the sea towards the cliffs of Dover. The verses were obviously in his mind, for he told the doctor who was in charge of his case; "Tell them this, if ye break faith with us who die, we shall not sleep."

The same night, January 28, 1918, McCrae died and was buried with military honours at a beautiful cemetery on rising ground above Wimereaux, from where the cliffs of Dover are easily visible on sunny days. At, McCrae's funeral procession, 75 nursing sisters stood by to watch and McCrae's horse, Bonfire, wore his master's boots backwards in military tradition.

We Shall Keep The Faith

Moina Michael was born near Good Hope, Walton County, Georgia on August 15, 1869 and grew up in a rural and religious community. At the age of 15, she began her career as a teacher, spending time in every section of the educational system in Georgia, teaching in county, town, state and church schools.

In September 1918, she took leave of absence from her post at the University of Georgia and arrived at the YMCA Training Headquarters at Columbia University, New York City, where she had originally been a student in 1912 - 1913.

The idea for the Flanders Fields Memorial Poppy came to Moina Michael while she was working at the YMCA Overseas War Secretaries' Headquarters on a Saturday morning in November 1918, two days before the Armistice was declared at 11 o'clock on November 11.

The Twenty-fifth Conference of the Overseas YMCA War Secretaries was in progress. On passing her desk, a young soldier left a copy of the November Ladies Home Journal on Moina's desk.

At about 10.30 a.m. when everyone was on duty elsewhere, Moina found a few moments to read the magazine. In it she came across a page which carried a vivid colour illustration for the poem. "We shall not sleep" (later named "In Flanders Fields") by John McCrae.

Reading the poem on this occasion - she had read in many times before - Moina was transfixed by the last verse - "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".

In Moina's book 'The Miracle Flower', she described the experience as deeply spiritual, and she felt as though she was actually being called in person by the voices, which had been silenced by death.

At that moment Moina made a personal pledge to wear a read poppy of Flanders Fields as a sign of remembrance and as an emblem for "keeping the faith with all who died". Compelled to make a note of this pledge she hastily scribbled down a response on the back of a used envelope, entitled

"We Shall Keep the Faith".
Oh! You who sleep in Flanders' Fields,
Sleep sweet - to rise anew;
We caught the torch you threw
and holding high, we kept the Faith
With All who died.
We cherish too, the poppy red
That grows on fields Where valor led;
It seems to signal to the skies
That blood of heroes never dies,
But lends a luster to the red
Of the flower that blooms above the dead
In Flanders' Fields.
And now the Torch and Poppy Red
We wear in honour of our dead.
Fear not that ye have died for naught;
We'll teach the lesson that ye wrought
In Flanders Fields.
Flanders Memorial Poppy

Moina Michael's religious upbringing inspired her to believe that the Flanders Memorial Poppy was indeed a spiritual symbol with more meaning behind it than pure sentimentalism; she equated the new optimism for a world returned to peace after the "war to end all wars" to the magnificent rainbow which appeared in the sky after the terrible biblical flood.

According to Moina, since this was the first group-effort asking for peoples to wear in memory of "all who died in Flanders Fields", and since this group had given her the money with which to buy them, she considered that she had consummated the first sale of the Flanders Fields Memorial Poppy on November 9, 1918.

By March 1919 she had moved back to Georgia to take up her place at the University of Georgia. With the return thousands of ex-servicemen from that time Moina realized that there was not only a need to honour the memory of those who had died in the service of their country, but also a need to remember that those who were returning also had mental, physical and spiritual needs.

During the summer months of 1919, Moina taught a class of disabled servicemen, there being several hundred in rehabilitation at the University of Georgia. Learning about their needs at first-hand gave her the impetus to widen the scope of the Poppy idea, to develop it so that it could be used to help all servicemen who needed help for themselves and for their dependents.

After 54 years in education she retired from the University of Georgia in 1938 after a year of prolonged illness and died on May 10, 1944.

The Red Poppy

The Red Poppy of Flanders is now considered the symbol of "Remembrance", particularly by Commonwealth countries. The annual requirement of poppies for 'Remembrance Sunday' in Sri Lanka is donated to the Sri Lanka Ex-Services Association (SLESA) at a request made through the British Commonwealth Ex-Services League by the Royal British Legion.

According to Capt. Patrick Jayasinghe, Chairman Poppy and Armed Forces Remembrance Day Committee and Secretary General of SLESA, the cost of the donated poppies for this year is sterling pound 35,000. To coincide with 'Remembrance Day' SLESA has declared a 10 Day programme which will commence on November 1, and culminate on November 10, with the 'Remembrance Day'.

The proceeds from the sale of artificial poppy flowers will be utilized for the well-being of Sri Lankan ex-servicemen and families of the patriotic service personnel who have made the supreme sacrifice. Remembrance Day

On November 11, 1918, came the ceasefire. It was the end of the First World War, a war that had cost the then British Empire many millions of dead and its allies and enemy many millions more. November 11 was adopted as the 'Day of Remembrance' for the fallen in that war and every day in the years between the First and Second World Wars. It was observed with parades and religious ceremonies.

At the close of the Second World War, November 11 became the "Day of Remembrance" for the dead of both wars. For many years afterwards, Armistice Day was observed on the 11th but now it is known as 'Remembrance Sunday', and is held always on the Sunday nearest the 11th.

As Sri Lanka was a colony under the British during the World Wars and many of our countrymen had been serving in the local and British Regiments.

In Sri Lanka, 'Remembrance Day' is observed in a serene and hallowing manner. The National ceremony to mark the 84th Remembrance Day will be held on November 10, at the Cenotaph, Vihara Maha Devi Park, Colombo.

For those of each generation who fought in these wars, this is a poignant and solemn occasion. We are reminded with deep emotion, of the survivors and the beloved ones who did not survive.

Wear a Poppy and Remember the Fallen!

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