The POPPY FACTORY, Richmond.
Someone - I can’t remember who - suggested I do an energy reading of The Poppy Factory, which is just up the road from where I live. It seemed a good idea - Armistice Day is coming up (11th November) - and so I book myself a ticket for their tour…and another for a friend who actually lives in the Poppy Factory flats and had never visited either. Something simple, yet meaningful: a signature of our day and the energy around it.
The tour was a very genteel affair, with some harsh facts thrown in. The UK lost more military personnel in WW1 than any other war: 885,246 over 4 years (I honour the fact the numbers were not rounded up…every single life mattering). During the Battle of the Somme, Britain lost 20,000 lives in just one day. 19,240 to be exact, with 57,470 casualties. And these returning men, needed help.
In 1921 the (Royal) British Legion was formed to help demobbed soldiers. It needed to raise money, and would do so with the poppy appeal - the first ones, made in silk, coming from France. (Britain adopted the poppy and France went on the adopt the blue cornflower).
Our tour guide shared how following the war, the Flanders fields bloomed with poppies. The bloodshed and disturbance of the land fed the poppy seeds, and the blood-red flowers rose in their thousands upon thousands amongst the destroyed landscape. Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae, moved by this sight and in memory of his friend, penned the poem: In Flanders Fields (see below). As a result, between 1918 - 1921 the poppy became a symbol of regrowth and hope and was adopted by The British Legion in 1921. But the idea was originally introduced by a French woman, Anna Guérin, who was fundraising by making silk poppies to support war widows. She presented her idea to the British Legion, and a million poppies were ordered from Anna Guérin in France - and the British Legion commissioned a further 8 million to be manufactured in Britain.
In the meantime, Major George Howson had a vision. He proposed that the poppies should be made by disabled war veterans in the UK. The Legion agreed and in May 1922 it gave Howson £2,000 to establish a poppy-making factory. A building had to be found, and quickly. Armistice Day was only 6 months away and Howson had many millions of poppies to make. The factory opened on 5th June 1922 on the Old Kent Road in Bermondsey, successfully completing the order in time for the 3rd Armistice Day. In 1926 it moved to its current location in Richmond, giving employment and support to over 320 disabled men and their families, and making up to 30 million poppies a year.
I ask, Why Richmond? ‘To give them the best and longest life,’ we are told. ‘Richmond offered a healthy and green landscape, close to Richmond Park for veterans with missing arms to walk, and close to the River Thames for veterans with missing legs to row.’ There was also enough land to build 58 flats next door and it became a thriving community.
This sense of community remains today. Now, just 12 people work in production at the factory - making the wreaths - with the main poppy-making managed by the British Legion in Aylesford, Kent. The Poppy Factory is its own charity, supporting veterans with physical and mental health conditions, with an additional workforce of staff assisting veterans into employment across all of England and Wales. It does not receive financial help from the British Legion, so has to fundraise for its work.
The Art Deco building, once a brewery, is a heritage centre which mixes workforce and visitors. As a building, it is honest and open, with a sense of warmth. Humour is essential in such an environment and this building supports an open heart and invites a smile. As visitors, we were encouraged to make our own poppy - using only one arm, with the help of a handy wooden block which made this possible for single-handed veterans - which felt significant. And we could observe the wreaths, every one of which is made by hand in this space: 130,000 or so a year. From royal wreaths laid on Remembrance Sunday or during state visits to the wreaths laid in our local villages (almost every village in Britain has a memorial, we are told), to wreaths for organisations - civilian or military - all are commissioned and made in Richmond, by hand. (It was quite a speedy turnaround to agree, design and make the new wreaths for the King, the Queen Consort and the Prince of Wales following Queen Elizabeth’s death just 2 months before Remembrance Sunday, apparently). A Royal wreath can take 2 weeks to make - the ribbons being the royal member’s racing colours - and are usually loaned out rather than replaced. The charity has a badge library of over 3000 different badges (for the centre of the wreath); the team of 12 employees also cut the petals for the annual Festival of Remembrance at the Royal Albert Hall (3 million petals, cut from crepe paper); make the poppies for the Field of Remembrance at Westminster Abbey; and supply the wreaths and installation for the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Westminster Abbey (which is changed every 6 months).
This sense of design and productivity - and inclusion - felt inspiring. Steeped in history, yet modern and in its own energy. Forward-facing, with a focus on the living, while honouring the past. This is an art: to manage energy in this way. Personally, I love an organisation which does one thing and does it well. There’s a cleanness of energy and a productive freedom. Room to expand and breathe - which is reflected in the location of this historic yet relevant charity, despite the changes in 101 years to the surrounding area. And since the employment service side began in 2010, they have helped over 2000 veterans, which is to be applauded. Whilst, I personally, no longer resonate with wearing a poppy, my visit to this charity and the warm and inclusive energy it evokes despite the sadness and horror of war, is as reassuring as the respect it deserves - a lightness of love, resounding back from each poppy worn.
I will always bow in gratitude; not for war, but for the love and loss such bravery creates.
Love Delilah
PS. The poppy is changing to an all-paper one - which might be a challenge in the British weather, but is a welcome adjustment for our planet.
PPS. Of additional interest to myself, I noted the significance of visiting an institution which reflects, in part, aspects of the life of Rudyard Kipling, whose spirit I channel. Rudyard Kipling is disliked and shunned by many, for reasons I appreciate, and which he is keen to share about in our work. However, I also respect his work at the War Graves Commission and his many epitaphs and inscriptions for headstones (‘Lest We Forget’, a common Remembrance Day quote from one of his poems); the loss of his son, John Kipling, age 18, in 1915 in the Battle of Loos, and whose body was never found despite his father’s searching. During our tour we were reminded that during the time of WW1, one-quarter of the World’s land and 400 million people (of a world population of around 1.7 billion) were governed by the British Empire. It is interesting, if unsettling, context for my visit and perspective.
PPPS. The ‘right’ way to wear a poppy, it was suggested, is with the green leaf pointing to 11am.
Visited: 23.10.23
In Flanders Fields
BY JOHN MCCRAE
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.