The symbol for Remembrance is the poppy, best described in the famous poem by Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae MD:

'In Flanders Fields'

In Flanders Fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

The History Behind the Poem 'In Flanders Fields'

Although he had been a doctor for years and had served in the South African War, it was impossible to get used to the suffering, the screams and the blood, and Major John McCrae had seen and heard enough in his dressing station to last him a lifetime.
As a surgeon attached to the 1st Field Artillery Brigade, Major McCrae, who had joined the McGill faculty in 1900 after graduating from the University of Toronto, had spent seventeen days treating injured men -- Canadians, British, Indians, French, and Germans -- in the Ypres salient.
It had been an ordeal that he had hardly thought possible. McCrae later wrote of it:
"I wish I could embody on paper some of the varied sensations of that seventeen days... Seventeen days of Hell! At the end of the first day, if anyone had told us we had to spend seventeen days there, we would have folded our hands and said it could not have been done."
One death particularly affected McCrae. A young friend and former student, Lt. Alexis Helmer of Ottawa had been killed by a shell burst on 2 May, 1915. Lieutenant Helmer was buried later that day in the little cemetery outside McCrae's dressing station and McCrae had performed the funeral ceremony in the absence of the chaplain.
The next day, sitting on the back of an ambulance parked near the dressing station beside the Canal de l'Yser, just a few hundred yards north of Ypres, McCrae vented his anguish by composing a poem. The major was no stranger to writing, having authored several medical texts besides dabbling in poetry.
In the nearby cemetery, McCrae could see the wild poppies that grew up in the ditches in that part of Europe and he spent twenty minutes of precious rest time scribbling fifteen lines of verse in a notebook.
A young soldier watched him write it. Cyril Allinson, a twenty-two year old sergeant-major, was delivering mail that day when he spotted McCrae. The major looked up as Allinson approached, then went on writing while the sergeant-major stood there quietly.
"His face was very tired but calm as we wrote," Allinson recalled. "He looked around from time to time, his eyes straying to Helmer's grave."
When McCrae finished five minutes later, he took his mail from Allinson and, without saying a word, handed his pad to the young NCO. Allinson was moved by what he read.
"The poem was an exact description of the scene in front of us both. He used the word blow in that line because the poppies actually were being blown that morning by a gentle east wind. It never occurred to me at that time that it would ever be published. It seemed to me just an exact description of the scene."
In fact, it was very nearly not published. Dissatisfied with it, McCrae tossed the poem away, but a fellow officer retrieved it and sent it to newspapers in England. 'The Spectator', in London, rejected it, but 'Punch' published it on 8 December 1915.

Today, the poppy represents the symbol of Remembrance. When you wear a poppy, you honour those who so valiantly gave their lives during times of war.

Remembrance Day in Australia

Australia seems far removed from the battlefields of Europe, but its membership in the British Commonwealth meant a commitment to supporting the British war effort in both World Wars, particularly in Turkey and the Middle East.
In 1918, the armistice that ended World War I came into force, bringing to an end four years of hostilities that saw almost 62,000 Australians die on foreign soil. Few Australian families were left untouched by the events of World War I - 'That war to end all wars'.

A fitting tribute to the fallen and the horror and shame of war is best summed up by the songs below. Please give them a listen.

John McDermott - And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda.mp3

John McDermott - The Green Fields of France.mp3

To download the above mp3s, right click on the file that you want. Then choose 'save target as'.   Download will begin.

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