Royal Jewels

[Daisys and Diamonds]

The history teacher in me has to chime in here. November 11 is approaching here in the US. I had not even realizezed it was approaching, because I am not paying attention to the date!

Seeing the poppies made me realize that the Royal Family is observing Armistice Day, now called Veterans Day in the United States. It commemorates the end of World War I at the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month of 1918 and was followed by the Versailles Conference and the Paris Peace Treaty.

Armistice Day is called Remembrance Day in the UK. It is not a holiday but is observed on Sunday, and is called Remembrance Sunday. Last year, being he 100th anniversary of the armistice, was the cause of special events.

something i only just learnt
why do we in NZ not do poppies on rememberence day but we do on ANZAC day in April ?
way back in 1921 when the French started making the poppies we were keen to join in
but the boat that delivered them that first year didn't get here in time (saddly this is also a modern problem for lots of imported goods)
so our Returned Services Association saved them up till ANZAC day and our tradition was born

 

[Daisys and Diamonds]

"In 2018 the Queen arrived at the Sunday Remembrance Day wearing, as is etiquette, black. The 93-year-old was joined by Camilla Parker Bowles and Kate Middleton.

...​

https://www.express.co.uk/news/royal/1200744/camilla-duchess-cornwall-camilla-parker-bowles-news-prince-charles-london-royal-family

On her left breast the Monarch wore five poppies, above an enormous diamond brooch.
The piece was the Queen Mother’s Shell Brooch, and it looks like an oyster with a shell made of solid diamonds, strings of diamond hanging from it and a large pearl in the middle.
Many questioned exactly why the Queen was wearing a bouquet of poppies, while Kate and Camilla wore three each.
There have been suggestions that the Queen’s five poppies represent each service in the war, the Army, the Navy, the RAF, the Civil Defence and women."


Queen Elizabeth on Remembrance Day 2018 wearing The Shell Brooch

i was woundering that very question often my self
why the multiple poppies ?
my English friend said because HM likes a corsage
but obviously there must be a reason

 

[Daisys and Diamonds]

At the Cenotaph on Remembrance Sunday

everybody looks very smart
that's an unusual picture of HM, i wounder what she is thinking ?

 

[AGBF]

Since there has been some discussion of the poppy as a symbol of remembering the soldiers lost in World War I (or The Great War as it was called prior to World War II), I thought I would post some information about it.

In the United States sometimes people wear one poppy on Veterans Day, which we celebrate on November 11. Many people in the US, however, do not even know that Veterans Day has its roots in Armistice Day and the end of World War I.

World War I was an earth shattering event. So many men were lost that that theirs was referred to as "The Lost Generation". The men were all killed and the women had no one to marry. The War Poets, many of whom died during the conflict, left us a huge legacy of incredibly moving poetry. The excerpt from a British website about the significance of the poppy cites one of those poems, "In Flanders Fields", but there were many more. My favorite is "Dulce Et Decorum Est" by Wilfred Owen.

"During WW1, much of the fighting took place in Western Europe. The countryside was blasted, bombed and fought over repeatedly. Previously beautiful landscapes turned to mud; bleak and barren scenes where little or nothing could grow. There was a notable and striking exception to the bleakness - the bright red Flanders poppies. These resilient flowers flourished in the middle of so much chaos and destruction, growing in the thousands upon thousands. Shortly after losing a friend in Ypres, a Canadian doctor, Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae was moved by the sight of these poppies and that inspiration led him to to write the now famous poem 'In Flanders Fields'.

The poem then inspired an American academic named Moina Michael to adopt the poppy in memory of those who had fallen in the war and she campaigned to get it adopted as an official symbol of Remembrance across the United States and worked with others who were trying to do the same in Canada, Australia and the UK.

Also involved with those efforts was a French woman, Anna Guérin who was in the UK in 1921 where she planned to sell the poppies in London.There she met Earl Haig, founder of the Royal British Legion, who was persuaded to adopt the poppy as an emblem for the Legion in the UK. The Legion, which had been formed in 1921, ordered nine million poppies and sold them on 11 November that year. The poppies sold out almost immediately. That first 'Poppy Appeal' raised over £106,000 to help veterans with housing and jobs; a considerable sum at the time. Today's Poppy Appeal? 40,000 volunteers distribute 40 million poppies."

The poppy

Our red poppy is a symbol of Remembrance and of hope, including hope for a positive future and a peaceful world.

www.britishlegion.org.uk

Link to site about the poetry of World War I

The Poetry of World War I by The Editors

From poems written in the trenches to elegies for the dead, these poems commemorate the Great War.

www.poetryfoundation.org

 

[AGBF]

OK...back to the question of why the Queen wears five poppies while other members of the Royal Family wear fewer. No one knows. There may be no reason.Here is the chatter.

For royal fans who don't live across the pond, British traditions and holidays can be a bit hard to understand at first glance. On Remembrance Day, for example, why are all the royals wearing paper poppy broaches on their clothes? Why does the queen wear more poppies than, say, Kate Middleton or Prince Harry?

Royals aren't the only ones wearing poppies on this holiday. The tradition of donning these flowers on November 11th began in 1921, when the Royal British Legion was founded, according to organization's website.

After World War I ended, poppies grew over the old battlefields and became seen as a "symbol of remembrance and hope." (This emotional connection between the flowers and the lives lost was memorialized in a 1915 poem by John McCrae).

After a successful campaign to make the flower the official symbol of remembrance, the Royal British Legion sold poppies made out of silk, using the revenue to support veterans whose lives were affected by the war. Today, the Royal British Legion continues to provide support for service men and women.

The tradition continues today, although the poppies are now commonly made out of paper rather than silk.

The Princess of Wales wearing three poppies


Last Remembrance Day, the queen wore five poppies while Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, and Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, wore three poppies each. While there is no official explanation for why the monarch donned more poppies than other members of the British Royal family, different theories have surfaced.

"The Palace has never stated why different royals wear different numbers of poppies," royal historian Marlene Koenig, founder of Royal Musings blog, tells BAZAAR.com. "It has been assumed that the queen wears five poppies for the three branches of the military [the army, navy, and air force] plus women and the civil defense."

The number of poppies worn by royals changes, too. Two years ago, the queen was seen wearing three poppies. "Looking at photos, Camilla and Catherine have worn three poppies to one event, one poppy to another," Koenig adds.

Another theory put forth by Express claims that the queen simply prefers a larger bouquet of paper poppies. Whatever the case, we know that the British Royal Family clearly takes their Remembrance Day duties seriously.