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Poppy Day
Remembrance Day, Poppy Day, Armistice Day, Veterans Day – the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month, a day and time that commemorates the end of World War I in 1918.
“Last Post” was originally a bugle call used in British Army camps to signal the end of the day. It is used in public ceremonials commemorating the war dead, particularly on Remembrance Day in the Commonwealth of Nations.
I remember at school we would always observe a two minute period of silence on this day, and that we would all wear a poppy, making a donation to the Salvation Army by doing so. I also remember that the two minutes silence would be called to an end by a fellow pupil playing the Last Post – the sounds echoing around the school’s hallway’s. During and after the Last post, the names of all students that had died during both World Wars were read out aloud. We also commemorated the event at Church, by observing a silence, and an old war hero would read out the following ode by Laurence Binyon.
They went with songs to the battle, they were young.
Straight of limb, true of eyes, steady and aglow.
They were staunch to the end against odds uncounted,
They fell with their faces to the foe.
They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning,
We will remember them.
