Factfile: Remembrance Day poppies

Last updated at 15:11 10 November 2005


Remembrance Day is marked each year to honour Britain's fallen heroes.

Read our factfile to find out more about Remembrance Day and the poppy tradition.

  • Hundreds of small wooden crosses stand planted in the ground at Westminster Abbey in central London as a mark of respect to those who died fighting for their country.

  • The crosses at the Field of Remembrance at Westminster lie grouped in nearly 250 regimental plots representing those killed in long-ago battles from the First World War to those who died more recently in the Iraq war.

  • More than 34 million blood-red paper poppies are made each year and are sold by the Royal British Legion for two weeks before Remembrance Sunday.

  • The first donations for artificial poppies were given in Britain on November 11, 1921, inspired by John McCrae's 1915 poem "In Flanders' Fields", which begins with lines "In Flanders' fields the poppies blow between the crosses, row on row".

  • Royal protocol dictates that the sovereign only displays a poppy from the Thursday before Remembrance Sunday, although the rest of the nation may wear them at any time.

  • The nation's symbols of remembrance are put together throughout the year by the Poppy Factory in Richmond, Surrey, by a team of 60 people, most of them disabled.

  • Over 12 months, as well as the poppies, they make five million remembrance petals, 750,000 Remembrance Crosses and nearly 100,000 wreaths, including those laid by the Queen and other members of the Royal Family.

    • :: The sale of poppies helps fund the Royal British Legion's work supporting former service personnel and their families.

    :: The British Legion is the UK's leading charity providing financial, social and emotional support to those who have served and are currently serving in the Armed Forces.

    :: Nearly 11 million people are eligible for their support and the organisation receives around 300,000 calls for help each year.

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