On November 11, 1918, on what would become known as Armistice Day, journalists around the globe reported that World War One had come to an end.
The following Daily Telegraph video notes:
“With the signing of the Armistice Treaty in Compiegne, France, the First World War officially ended at 11 am on November 11, 1918…the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month.”
Here is a recent Press Association story about Queen Elizabeth’s visit to the poppy memorial at the Tower of London.
This excerpt comes from the November 2014 Canada.com story, “John McCrae’s wartime poem ‘In Flanders Fields’ still stirs sentiments today.”
“It was published nearly 100 years ago, but its words still ring true today.
Despite the passage of time, Canadian Lt.-Col. John McCrae’s poem ‘In Flanders Fields’ — often recited around Remembrance Day or when a soldier dies in the line of duty — has managed to remain relevant to every conflict since the First World War.
….McCrae’s poem was first published anonymously in Punch magazine, a British weekly, and immediately became incredibly popular, not just among those in the military but also with civilians back home.
….McCrae did not, however, live to see just how much an impact his poem had, particularly on the eventual use of the poppy as a symbol of remembrance. He died of pneumonia and meningitis in a small town in France in January 1918.
The opening lines of his poem — ‘In Flanders fields the poppies blow/Between the crosses, row on row’ — have immortalized the image of the small red and black flowers growing amid the destruction of the war’s bloody battlefields.”
