Why wear the Poppy?

As the BBC has been heralding for a number of weeks Armistice Day is fast approaching. The Poppy Appeal is in full swing and, already in shops up and down the country, the paper flowers and collecting tins will be on out streets again in the coming days. The poppy has become a universally accepted emblem, instantly recognisable. But what does it mean? Why and in what spirit do we wear the poppy?

Indeed it is so recognisable that is has become 'black boxed', merely a reminder of the time of year. It exists, we notice it, acknowledge it, buy it. But do we really think about what it means? This is highlighted by the sickening way in which, this year the emblem of ultimate sacrifice has been subverted. Available now are crystal encrusted poppies, sported most notably by the judges on ITV's X Factor. The £84.99 price tag is certainly a boost to the good work of the Royal British Legion, however as an emblem it is unequivocally inappropriate. The poppy was never intended as a fashion statement. With this it has become one. The donation is important, but the sober dignity of the simple traditional poppy worn, without further adornment, almost universally is far more important as a symbol of remembrance and determination to avert warfare.

The origins of the symbol are, of course well known. Blossoming in the disturbed earth of France and Flanders as a result of the horrors of the trench warfare of the Great War the spirit is encapsulated so movingly in John McCrae's In Flanders Fields. But where is this spirit?

The poppy became an emblem for a generation who had served in that First World War, of an unspeakable nightmare, the true extent of which remained a secret to those who had witnessed it from both sides. The old soldier's song And when they ask us, used so powerfully in the anti-war piece Oh, What a Lovely War! says it all:

And when they ask us, how dangerous it was,

Oh, we'll never tell them, no, we'll never tell them:

We spent our pay in some cafe,

And fought wild women night and day,

'Twas the cushiest job we ever had.

And when they as us, and they're certainly going to ask us,

The reason why we didn't win the Croix de Guerre,

Oh, we'll never tell then, no we'll never tell them

There was a front, but damned if we knew where.

No matter how many histories of the war are written, how long we study the conflict or even how many films are made we can never understand the true tragedy on innumerable levels the 1914-18 war in particular was. That, I suppose, is something which we cannot accept. The First World War generation is gone and the next, which sent it's sons off into another global conflict is ageing. For the first time in a century we are living in a society where the majority of the population know nothing of the horrors of battle. We glorify war and we prize our 'heroes' in uniform but we know nothing of it. Countless glossy war films, video games and senseless fiction has left us, as a society, de-sensitised to what an abhorrent notion war is and always will be to humanity.

I have not served, but taken from men who have in war zones of the past quarter of a century (Afghanistan, Iraq, Northern Ireland, and the Falklands) a letter to The Independent Wednesday 3rd November 2010) highlights the true meaning of Armistice Day. Put succinctly 'Remembrance should be marked with the sentiment "Never again" ' It must not provide some sort of validation for current conflict, nor must it glamorise the mystique of heroes. Regrettably it does.

Behind the medals, the homecoming parades and the sometimes sickening jingoism and rhetoric of heroism we have lost what war is. It is an affront to humanity. As the six ex-servicemen state with far greater authority than I can claim 'There is nothing heroic about being blown up in a vehicle. There is nothing heroic about being shot in an ambush and there is nothing heroic about fighting an unnecessary conflict.'

The poppy must represent to us, as it did to those now long gone battalions of the 'The War to End All Wars' humble, silent remembrance and a determination to fittingly honour the memory of those who could say 'For your tomorrow, We gave our today'. Nothing short of that will do.