The soldiers were courageous
But in battle they did yield
And John McCrea, he lost a friend
On Ypres fighting field
He wrote Flanders Fields for him
His soul he laid out bare
He wrote about the poppy fields
For every soldier there
The slender graceful poppy
Sprouted where they lay
So that we would think of them
Every Remembrance Day
They grew in their thousands
And proudly there they stand
This hardy little flower
Grows on barren land
American lady, Moira Michael
Made poppies of silk to sell
And Anna Guerin, brought them to England
And boy, did they sell well!
It was The Royal British Legion
Who sold nine million poppies on
Remembrance Day
Back in nineteen twenty one
Over one hundred thousand pounds
That first appeal did raise
Which helped the Great War veterans
In those very early days
The Legion, along with Major George
Houston’s factory line
To this day, produce nine million
poppies, every year combined.
Scotland wanted poppies too
But England’s were all gone
Lady Haig set a factory up
So Edinburgh had one
A story of a little flower
A symbol of life and not of death
Its beauty blooms to give us hope
And help us never to forget
Things In My Head 