Remembrance Day 2015

The City of South Perth together with the Sub-Branch of the RSL WA hosted a Remembrance Day Service in the City's Memorial Gardens, joined by members of the public, St Columba's Catholic Primary and Wesley College.

The Flanders poppy has long been a part of Remembrance Day, among the first plants to bloom in the devastated battlefields of northern France and Belgium during the First World War.

Over the years I have witnessed poppies adorn public spaces at this time of the year, symobolising respect, admiration and remembering the fallen.

"In Flanders Fields" is a war poem written during the First World War by Canadian physician Lieutenant-Colonel John McCrae. He was inspired to write it on May 3, 1915 after presiding over the funeral of friend and fellow soldier Alexis Helmer, who died in the Second Battle of Ypres. 

In Flanders Field

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.

John McCrae