Tower of London poppy display to go on tour

I tried to buy one.

Sold out.

Each of the 888,246 ceramic poppies in the Tower of London's moat, each one representing a British military death of WWI, has been sold for £25, to raise a total of £2.2 million for Armed Forces charities. The last two were today planted by David Cameron and his wife Samantha. After the exhibition is uprooted and toured around the country, each poppy will then be sent to its owner.

The display - called Blood Swept Lands And Seas Of Red, after words written on the will of a soldier from his native Derbyshire who died in Flanders - just gives you an idea of the scale of British loss in the Great War. The number 888,246 on its own doesn't really mean much, but when you see 888,246 poppies together and the huge area that they cover, it just gives you an idea of the loss Britain suffered between 1914 and 1918.

Around 5 million people are expected to see the exhibition in London, giving two fingers to the sneering Left-wing bible The Guardian, which recently called it a "Ukip-style memorial."






The work, created by Paul Cummins, is to simply express thanks to those who made the ultimate sacrifice - without political agenda


The sea of crimson poppies can be seen from The View From The Shard near the top of London's tallest skyscraper - a beacon of colour in the more grey London surroundings


The exhibition is supposed to represent blood pouring from the Tower's ramparts into the moat


Every evening, as dusk falls, crowds watch as the names of British soldiers who died in the First World War are read out by a Yeomen Warder at the Tower of London poppies. Entire families have been turning up to hear a great-grandfather or great-uncle being honoured. Earlier this week, one Roll Call included the entire list of war dead from Clare College, Cambridge. A century on, many are finding it a profoundly moving experience.


Her Majesty looked contemplative as she toured the poppies last month. The poppies will be sold to raise money for military charities


In stirring scenes, Joey, the star of War Horse, also visited the poppies - one of several high profile visitors to the installation



The award-winning theatrical designer, Tom Piper, was recruited to bring the vision to life. A factory was set up in Derby and 50 unemployed locals hired to make the poppies, while two specialist potteries, in Warwickshire and Stoke, were also invited to help.

Rebuffed in his attempts to raise any support from Government and the usual Left-wing arts bodies, which usually chuck millions at pointless tat providing it ticks the relevant politically correct boxes (how silly they look now), Paul Cummins had to take out a £1 million high-interest loan just to bring his idea to life.

He has certainly suffered for his art. Early on, he lost a middle finger rolling out a new batch of poppies.

Neither he nor anyone else envisaged quite how this would turn out when the first poppy was planted last July by Yeoman Sergeant Crawford Butler.

This project has now attracted some 30,000 volunteers. That is almost half the number for the entire 2012 London Olympics. And they are vital because it has required a citizen army to plant nearly a million poppies in a matter of weeks. Another one will be needed in the weeks ahead to uproot them all and send the same poppies on their way to the people who have paid £25 for each one.

How the ceramic poppies were made:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=pl ... L31gWEKuws

You keep saying a British military death or scale of British loss and the loss Britain suffered when in reality each one of the 888,246 poppies represent both British and deaths during WW1!

..and don't forget that the symbolism of the red poppy, as well as "In Flanders Fields", are Canadian.

..and don't forget that the symbolism of the red poppy, as well as "In Flanders Fields", are Canadian.

... and French, Belgians, also German and Hungarians are mixed in with that same soil in Flanders.

No, it doesn't. Each one represents a British military death. I wouldn't read everything you see in the newspapers.

The exact numbers of British military deaths are disputed, but they range from approximately 850,000 to just over 1 million. Many experts have now settled on the number 888,246. Add in the few deaths from the minor nations in the Empire like Australia, New Zealand, Canada, South Africa etc, and the total number comes to just over 1 million.

Also, it wasn't the Commonwealth during WWI. It was the British Empire.

The remembrance poppy is an American idea which was adopted by the British, Canadians, Australians and New Zealanders.

In 1918, American YWCA worker Moina Michael, inspired by the poem "In Flanders Fields" by Canadian physician Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae, published a poem of her own called "We Shall Keep the Faith". In tribute to McCrae's poem, she vowed to always wear a red poppy as a symbol of remembrance for those who served in the war. At a November 1918 YWCA Overseas War Secretaries' conference, she appeared with a silk poppy pinned to her coat and distributed 25 more to those attending. She then campaigned to have the poppy adopted as a national symbol of remembrance. At a conference in 1920, the National American Legion adopted it as their official symbol of remembrance. At this conference, Frenchwoman Anna E. Guérin was inspired to introduce the artificial poppies commonly used today. In 1921 she sent her poppy sellers to London, where they were adopted by Field Marshal Douglas Haig, a founder of the Royal British Legion. It was also adopted by veterans' groups in Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

Today, the remembrance poppy is especially prominent in the UK.

Really are a troll, aren't ya?

Nope.

The stats are all there in black and white.

Britain lost between 826,746 and 1,012,075 military personnel in the conflict, whereas the British Empire as a whole lost between 1,034,200 and 1,244,589 military personnel.

Basically, Britain lost many more military personnel in the Great War than all the minor nations of the British Empire COMBINED.

I'm not arguing the numbers. It's the word choice. "Minor" nations intimates a certain arrogant and disrespectful attitude. "Smaller" nations would have conveyed the same facts without the attitude.

British Empire.......

Why does the word IDIOT continue to come to mind every time I read a post by Batsy2?

Ok dingBatsy I'll call BS on this one. The historical facts you chirped were (big surprise) from Wiki as usual. You failed to acknowledge as Wiki did that those numbers included the colonies. Secondly your first set of numbers you posted with the number of Poppies doesn't match your historically researched second set. So which one is the "Historically" researched?

It's kind of like watching a car accident. You know it's wrong but you have look anyway.