Formation | 1922 |
---|---|
Type | Charity |
Purpose | Veterans' employment charity |
Headquarters | Richmond-upon-Thames |
Location | |
Region served | United Kingdom 51°27′20″N0°18′10″W / 51.45556°N 0.30278°W |
Official language | English |
Website | www |
The Poppy Factory is a factory in Richmond, London, England, where remembrance wreaths are made. It was founded in 1922 to offer employment opportunities to wounded soldiers returning from the First World War, creating remembrance poppies and wreaths for the Royal Family and the Royal British Legion's annual Poppy Appeal. It is operated by a company that is a registered charity which provides employment support to veterans with health conditions across England and Wales. The factory's production team continues to make remembrance wreaths by hand today.
The corresponding organisation in Scotland is Lady Haig's Poppy Factory in Edinburgh, which was established in 1926 and makes approximately five million remembrance poppies each year.
Artificial poppies for the first poppy appeal in 1921 were imported from France by Madame Anna Guérin. [1]
In 1922 the Disabled Society, a charity established in 1920 by Major George Howson MC and Major Jack Cohen, received a grant of £2,000 from the British Legion's Unity Relief Fund to employ disabled ex-service personnel to make remembrance poppies in England. [2] Later that year, Howson wrote to his parents, "I do not think it can be a great success, but it is worth trying. I consider the attempt ought to be made if only to give the disabled their chance." [3]
They set up in a former collar factory on the Old Kent Road in London. Soon the factory was employing 50 disabled veterans. [4]
In November 1924, the Prince of Wales (later Edward VIII) visited the Poppy Factory, which made 27 million poppies that year. Most of the employees were disabled, and by then there was a long waiting list for prospective employees. [5]
The old collar factory eventually proved too small as demand increased, and in 1926 the factory moved to a disused brewery in Petersham Road, Richmond, Surrey. [6] The Poppy Factory organised the first annual Field of Remembrance at Westminster Abbey in 1928. [7] The current Art Deco Poppy Factory building was built on the brewery site and was completed in 1933. [8]
In November 2016, former chief executive Melanie Waters became the chief executive of Help for Heroes charity. [9] Deirdre Mills was later appointed the new chief executive; she had previously been a Director at the Commonwealth War Graves Commission. [10]
In July 2017, Queen Elizabeth II visited the factory to celebrate the charity’s 90th anniversary. [11]
Lady Haig's Poppy Factory was founded in Edinburgh in March 1926, shortly after the Royal British Legion's factory in London, [12] as independent charity to provide employment to disabled veterans. Lady Haig's Poppy Factory became a trading name of Poppyscotland of which it is a subsidiary. [13]
The factory was created at the suggestion of and by Dorothy, Countess Haig, wife of Field Marshal Douglas Haig, 1st Earl Haig, who had created the Haig Fund to assist ex-servicemen and which still raises funds through the UK's annual poppy appeal. [12]
It was established in a former wood-chopping factory in the grounds of Whitefoord House. The factory moved to its current premises, a former printing works in Warriston Road, in 1965. [14]
In November 2018 the factory was moved for two years into Redford Barracks while major renovations could be made while also adding a new learning facility. [15]
Like the Poppy Factory in Richmond, it employs ex-service personnel, all of them disabled. It makes five million remembrance poppies in Edinburgh each year, to a slightly different design with four-lobed petals rather than two for English poppies, and 12,000 wreaths. [16]
Remembrance Day is a memorial day observed in Commonwealth member states since the end of the First World War in 1919 to honour armed forces members who have died in the line of duty. The day is also marked by war remembrances in several other non-Commonwealth countries. In most countries, Remembrance Day is observed on 11 November to recall the end of First World War hostilities. Hostilities formally ended "at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month" of 1918, in accordance with the armistice signed by representatives of Germany and the Entente between 5:12 and 5:20 that morning. The First World War officially ended with the signing of the Treaty of Versailles on 28 June 1919.
Remembrance Sunday is held in the United Kingdom as a day to commemorate the contribution of British and Commonwealth military and civilian servicemen and women in the two World Wars and later conflicts. It is held on the second Sunday in November. Remembrance Sunday, within the Church of England, falls in the liturgical period of Allsaintstide.
The Royal Canadian Legion is a non-profit Canadian veterans' organization founded in 1925. Members includes people who served in the military, Royal Canadian Mounted Police, provincial or municipal police, Royal Canadian Air, Army and Sea Cadets and direct relatives.
The Royal British Legion (RBL), formerly the British Legion, is a British charity providing financial, social and emotional support to members and veterans of the British Armed Forces, their families and dependants, as well as all others in need.
The Haig Fund is a charity set up in 1921 by Field Marshal Douglas Haig, 1st Earl Haig.
The white poppy is a flower used as a symbol of peace, worn either in place of or in addition to the red remembrance poppy for Remembrance Day or Anzac Day.
A remembrance poppy is an artificial flower worn in some countries to commemorate their military personnel who died in war. Remembrance poppies are produced by veterans' associations, who exchange the poppies for charitable donations used to give financial, social and emotional support to members and veterans of the armed forces.
The Earl Haig Fund Scotland, trading as poppyscotland, is a Scottish charity for veterans of the British Armed Forces and their dependants. It was founded in 1921 by Douglas Haig, 1st Earl Haig as part of the broader British Haig Fund. Its main source of funding is the Scottish Poppy Appeal, organised in conjunction with the Royal British Legion in Scotland, which sells remembrance poppies in early November leading up to Remembrance Sunday. The first Poppy Appeal took place in 1921, and in 1926 Countess Haig established the Lady Haig's Poppy Factory in Edinburgh. The fund merged with The Royal British Legion in 2011 but operates as a distinct charity with the Legion.
Help for Heroes is a British charity which supports members of the British Armed Forces community with their physical and mental health, as well as their financial, social and welfare needs. The charity was founded in 2007 by Bryn and Emma Parry after they visited soldiers at Selly Oak Hospital in Birmingham. The charity now supports all veterans, serving personnel, those who have served alongside the UK military, and their families.
Moina Belle Michael was an American professor and humanitarian who conceived the idea of using poppies as a symbol of remembrance for those who served in World War I.
The South African Legion is the oldest military veterans organisation in South Africa. It is referred to simply as the SA Legion or even 'The Legion' and is one of the largest independent military veterans charities in South Africa.
Major George Arthur Howson MC was an officer in the British Army in the First World War, and later the founder and chairman of the Royal British Legion Poppy Factory.
The Field of Remembrance is a memorial garden organised annually by the Poppy Factory in Westminster, London.
The Gibraltar Cross of Sacrifice is a war memorial in the British Overseas Territory of Gibraltar. It is located west of North Front Cemetery, at the junction of Winston Churchill Avenue and Devil's Tower Road. The Cross of Sacrifice was designed by Sir Reginald Blomfield in 1917, and his monument is found in numerous Commonwealth War Graves Commission cemeteries. The cross in Gibraltar was erected by the Royal Engineers for the commission, and unveiled on Armistice Day 1922. The British Pathé film recorded at the dedication ceremony that day represents the first motion picture made in Gibraltar. The Gibraltar Cross of Sacrifice served as the focus of Remembrance Sunday ceremonies in Gibraltar until 2009, at which time the location was changed to the Gibraltar War Memorial.
The Museum of Richmond in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames is located in Richmond's Old Town Hall, close to Richmond Bridge. It was formally opened by Queen Elizabeth II on 28 October 1988.
A remembrance cross is a small wooden cross used to remember the sacrifice of the armed forces in the United Kingdom, particularly during Remembrancetide, the period of the annual Poppy Appeal. Remembrance crosses are produced by the Poppy Factory in Richmond and Lady Haig's Poppy Factory in Edinburgh, which also produce remembrance poppies and wreaths. A remembrance cross is usually decorated with a remembrance poppy and the phrase "Remembrance" or "In Remembrance",
Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red was a public art installation created in the moat of the Tower of London, England, between July and November 2014. It commemorated the centenary of the outbreak of World War I and consisted of 888,246 ceramic red poppies, each intended to represent one British or Colonial serviceman killed in the War. The ceramic artist was Paul Cummins, with conceptual design by the stage designer Tom Piper. The work's title was taken from the first line of a poem by an unknown soldier in World War I.
Royal British Legion Industries (RBLI) is a charity based in the UK that helps Armed Forces veterans, disabled people and people who are unemployed. It runs a social enterprise, Britain's Bravest Manufacturing Company, a UK-wide employment support programme for Armed Forces veterans, Lifeworks, a variety of housing for veterans and their families, as well as running back-to-work support for people who have been long-term unemployed or have a disability/health condition. RBLI's headquarters are in Aylesford, Kent, however they support the Armed Forces community nationwide. RBLI is a separate charity from The Royal British Legion.
The Delhi War Cemetery, in the Delhi Cantonment, Delhi, India, is the site of the graves of 1,154 service personnel who served the British Empire during the First and Second World Wars. The cemetery was established in 1951 to ensure the permanent preservation of the remains of soldiers across various cemeteries in northern India.
Madame E. Guérin was born at Vallon (-Pont-d’Arc), Ardèche, France. She was the originator of the Remembrance Poppy Day. Prior to this, she was a teacher in Madagascar; a lecturer for the Alliance Française; and a lecturer, fundraiser and humanitarian in the United States, during World War I. For services to France, she was awarded the Officier d'académie’ médaille and the Officier de l’Instruction Publique médaille. For her services to the United States, for the Liberty Bond, she was awarded the Victory Liberty Loan Medallion.