ROYAL CANADIAN LEGION
BRANCH 623
BATH, ON
K0H 1G0

http://schoolnet2.carleton.ca/books/remember.htm

THE ESSENCE OF A POPPY
(Excerpt from Ministry of Veterans Affairs)

     During the Napoleonic Wars, the poppy drew attention as the mysterious flower that
               bloomed over the grves of fallen soldiers.

    In the Twenth Century, the poppy again was widely noticed after soils in France and
               Belgium became rich in lime from rubble during Worly War I.  The little red flowers
               flourished around the graves of the war dead as they had one hundred years earlier.

    In 1915, Guelph, Ontario native John McCrae, a doctor serving with the Canadian Forces
              Artillery, recorded this phenomenon in his famous Poen In Flanders Field.

     Two days before the Armistice, Moina Michael, an American woman from Athens,
              Georgia, read the McCrae Poem and was inspired to wear a poppy year-round in
               memor of the war dead.

    In 1920, Madame E. Guérin of France visited the United States and happened to
            meet Miss Michael at the YMCA at Columbia University, where the latter was a
            volunteer.  Mme. Guérin then resolved to sell handmade poppies around Armistice Day
            to raise money for poor children in war-torn areas of Europe.

    In 1921, Field-Marshall Earl Haig, the former Commander-in-Chief of the British Armies
            in France and Belgium and the principal founder of the British Legion, was sold on
            Mme. Guérin's fundraising idea and approved organization of the British Poppy Day
            Appeal by the Legion to raise money for poor and disable veterans.

    The same year, Mme. Guérin visited Canada, and convinced the Great War Veterans
            Association (predecessor to the Royal Canadian Legion) to similarly adopt the poppy
            as a symbol of remembrance in aid of fundraising.

    Today, the Poppy Campaign is one of the Royal Canadian Legion's most important
            programs.  The money raised from poppy sales provides direct assistance for
            ex-service people in financial distress, as well as funding for medical appliances and
            research, home services, care facilities, and numerous other purposes.

REMEMBRANCE DAY FACTS
(From Veteran Affairs Canada)

	Remembrance Day commemorats Canadians who died in the First and Second World Wars and the Korean War.  It is held every November 11.
	The first Remembrance Day was conducted in 1919 throughout the Commonwealth. Originally called Armistic Day, it commemorated the end of the First World War on Monday, November 11, 1918 at 11 a.m.; the eleventh hour of the eleventh month.
	From 1923 to 1931, Armistice Day was held on the Monday of the week in which November 11 fell.  Thanksgiving was also celebrated on this day.
	In 1931, M.P. Allan Neill introduced a bill to hold Armistice Day on a fixed day - November 11.  During the bill's introduction, it was decided the word "Remembrance" would be used instead of "Armistic".  The bill passed and Remembrance Day was conducted on November 11, 1931.  Thanksgiving Day was moved to October 12 that year.
	The poppy is the symbol of Remembrance Day.  Replica poppies are sold by the Royal Canadian  Legion to raise money for needy veterans.

Some of our favorite sites:

The Millennia Legacy Project

Canadian Military Heritage Project

Canadian Armed Forces

War Amputees

Commonwealth War Graves Commission

Canadian War Museum