Today, Sunday November 11, 2018, marks 100 years since the WWI Armistice was signed on November 11, 1918, bringing an end to WWI. The total number of military and civilian casualties in World War I is around 40 million with 20 million deaths and 21 million wounded. This includes the total number of deaths of 9.7 million military personnel and about 10 million civilians. This really was the war to end all wars, but yet no one really learned anything did they.

Poppy art from the “14-18 NOW poppy sculptures Wave and Weeping Window at 19 locations around the UK until the end of 2018. The sculptures have now been seen by over 4 million people” (https://www.1418now.org.uk/commissions/poppies/locations/#main).

The 1915 poem “In Flanders Fields” by Lieutenant-Colonel John McCrae (he died during the war) tells of the bright red wildflower and how it was a symbol of hope because it once grew on the battlefield.

In Flanders Fields

John McCrae (1872 – 1918)

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.

10,000 lit torches in the Tower moat for the week long remembrance. Tower of London, 2018
(Photo from https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-46159800 and Reuters)

The 100 year commemoration of WWI started in 2014 and will ended this year in 2018. For the past 4 years there have been many poppy displays, but the best one I believe was the one at The Tower of London in 2014.

HM Queen Elizabeth II at the The Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red installation, created by artist Paul Cummins, Armistice Day on November 11, 2014
(https://www.itv.com/news/2014-10-16/queen-lays-wreath-at-tower-of-london-poppy-memorial/)

Tower of London, The Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red installation, created by artist Paul Cummins, Armistice Day on November 11, 2014
(https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/tower-of-london-poppies-online-campaign-set-up-to-keep-installation-for-a-further-year-9838449.html)