01 Nov 2017 – Sunday 12th November 2017 is Remembrance Sunday.

The Poppy Appeal is the Royal British Legion’s biggest fundraising campaign held every year in November, the period of Remembrance.

Remembrance is part of modern British life, culture and heritage. It becomes a particular feature of the public calendar each year when public, private, formal and informal Remembrance events take place throughout the UK.

Remembrance Sunday, which falls on 12 November 2017, is a day for the nation to remember and honour those who have sacrificed themselves to secure and protect our freedom. Although inspired by the Great War Remembrance Sunday honours the fallen in every conflict since. It is not a celebration of war but a mark of respect to everyone who sacrificed their lives so that we today can live our lives in peace.

The inspiration behind the poppy as a symbol of Remembrance. In the spring of 1915, shortly after losing a friend in Ypres, a Canadian doctor, Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae was inspired by the sight of poppies growing in battle-scarred fields to write a now famous poem called ‘In Flanders Fields’. After the First World War, the poppy was adopted as a symbol of Remembrance.