In 1915, Canadian physician Lieutenant-Colonel John McCrae wrote his famous war poem, In Flanders Fields, following the devastation he witnessed on the battlefields of Ypres, Belgium.

The poem describes the delicate red wildflowers that bloomed where more than a million soldiers died between 1914 and 1918.

Inspired, Anna Guérin, a French teacher turned fundraiser for the war effort, began selling poppies on designated days beginning in September 1919. She then reached out to the American, Canadian and British legions to request that the poppy be recognized as an emblem of Remembrance.

In 1921, the Royal British Legion ordered a million poppies from Anna Guérin in France and commissioned the manufacture of a further 8 million in Britain.

They were made from silk and were sold on November 11th of that year during the first ever Poppy Appeal.

The tradition has continued ever since, even if silk is now relegated to history. In 2023, the Legion began making fully recyclable paper poppies.

In 1926, in Scotland, Lady Haig opened Lady Haig’s Poppy Factory, employing former veterans to make flowers from fabrics. It is the hub that produces poppies for Poppy Scotland’s poppy appeal.

The Scottish poppy has no green leaves and has four-lobed petals, while the England and Wales poppy has two.