Australian symbols (nation and war time)

For British and Commonwealth people, the poppy is the Remembrance flower since the 20s. It is worn during Armistice commemorations and wraiths laid down of graves or monuments are often made of artificial poppies. This symbol is the equivalent of the cornflower for the French but its use is more wide-spread and maybe more meaningful.

During the Great War, poppies were among the first plants still growing and sprouting on the destroyed grounds. Soldiers used to tell that before the war they bloomed with white flowers but that having grown on a ground soaked with the blood of their fellows had made them become bright red. Several texts mention poppies and their strange presence on the battlefield. One of them, the famous poem "In Flanders Fields", is consider being at the origin of the use of the poppy as a Remembrance symbol. Miss Moira Michael, an American who worked then for the Young Men Christian Association (The YMCA, during the war this charity aimed at improving the every day life of soldiers), was upset by this poem and drafted another one as a reply: "The Victory Emblem". The emblem was naturally the poppy: its bloom reminds for ever that "the blood of the heroes never dies "...

The first poppies were sold then worn in small number on November 9th, 1918 during a meeting of senior YMCA members at Miss Michael home. This precedent inspired the French representative, Mrs Guerin. She succeeded in contacting associations of the allied countries in order artificial poppies to be sold for the benefit of widows, orphans and veterans in need. The first "Poppy Day" and the first sales of poppies in Great Britain as well as in Australia took place on November 11th, 1921. Poppies were mostly bought from a French organization: profits served for helping the children of the destroyed regions and the fabrication was ensured by war widows.

In 1921, war veterans' main Australian association imported a million tissue poppies made in French orphanages. Each poppy was sold a schilling and on this amount six pennies went to an association in charge of French children. Originally, the poppy was not officially associated to Anzac Day (the Australian Remembrance Day). That role occurred progressively. It would be bound to a practice begun on November 11th, 1993, when the Australian Unknown Soldier was buried in Canberra. Participants slide a poppy in the chink next to the name of a relative on the Hall of Memory walls where are registered the names of the war dead. A common way used to pay respect on the other monuments of the Commonwealth.

Nowadays, in Great Britain as in Australia, poppies are still sold and worn in the buttonhole of poppies while the Armistice Day. Profits from sales are for charities.

Remains of the bunker where John McCrae
wrote his poem, near Ieper.

The author, Lieutenant-Colonel John McCrae served as doctor in a front rescue post during the second battle of Ieper in 1915. Taking advantage of a calm moment, he wrote this poem with a pencil on a sheet of pad. Afterward, he sent it anonymously to the English magazine "Punch" which published it on December 8th, 1915 under the title "In Flanders ' Fields". This poem had from this moment an enormous success. John McCrae died in France of pneumonia in a military hospital in May 1918. Just before dying, he revealed to be the author of the famous poem. This one is very often recited during Remembrance ceremonies.

The Victoria Cross is the most prestigious British decoration. It was created in February 1856 and named after Queen Victoria. That medal was awarded from this date and retroactively to 1854. Indeed, its institution is connected to the war of Crimea against Russia. Previously, there were no really awards which can be awarded with justice. The Victoria Cross is since awarded for an act of bravery, courage or considerable self-abnegation, or still extreme devotion facing the enemy. It is awarded without distinction of rank. After 1874, all the soldiers of the British Empire could receive this distinction. To date, 1 354 Victoria Cross have been awarded. The last two ones during the Falklands war in 1982. For important acts of bravery a bar can be add to the initial medal.

Until 1918, the ribbon was dark blue for the navy and carmine red for the army. Then this last colour was adopted for all the armies. The medal would be made of the metal of guns taken to the Russians during the war of Crimea. The Cross was designed by H.H. Armstead who worked for London jewellers today still in charge of its production. On the reverse, the date of the act of gallantry, the rank, the name and the regiment are engraved. For their behaviour at the battle of Hamel, the Australian soldiers Henry Dalziel ( 15th battalion) and Thomas L. Axford ( 16th battalion) received the Victoria Cross.

External link / Source : Victoria Cross Reference

"Lest We Forget" is originally a victorian ode known under the title "Recessional". Its author is the famous Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936). He wrote that ode in 1897 in honor of Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee. It contains a strong warning to the British not to exploit other races. It was maybe inspired by a battle led in India by the British imperial troops near Kargill in India. With the Great war, it was re-used because Kipling really meant something much deeper. It is interesting to note that the writer lost his only son on the Somme in 1916. Kipling also had a great role in the design of post-war military cemetaries.

Its author, Laurence Binyon (1869-1943), was a well-known poet at the turn of the XXth century. On 21st September 1914, the Times published his poem "For The Fallen." Binyon wrote the poem while working at the British Museum. He did not go out to the front until 1916 and served as a Red Cross Orderly. His poem, often shortly titled "The Ode" is now part of the British and ANZAC traditions. At ceremonies, the fourth verse is mostly recited as a pray.