Field of Remembrance Westminster Abbey - geograph

The Field of Remembrance is a memorial garden organised annually by the

Poppy Factory The Poppy Factory is a factory in Richmond, London, England, where remembrance wreaths are made. It was founded in 1922 to offer employment opportunities to wounded soldiers returning from the First World War, creating remembrance poppies and ...

Westminster Westminster is an area of Central London, part of the wider City of Westminster. The area, which extends from the River Thames to Oxford Street, has many visitor attractions and historic landmarks, including the Palace of Westminster, B ...

, London. For eight days, from the morning of the Thursday before

Remembrance Sunday Remembrance Sunday is held in the United Kingdom as a day to commemorate the contribution of British and Commonwealth military and civilian servicemen and women in the two World Wars and later conflicts. It is held on the second Sunday in Nov ...

until the evening of following Thursday, the lawn of St Margaret's Church, Westminster, between

Westminster Abbey Westminster Abbey, formally titled the Collegiate Church of Saint Peter at Westminster, is an historic, mainly Gothic church in the City of Westminster, London, England, just to the west of the Palace of Westminster. It is one of the Unite ...

and the

Houses of Parliament The Palace of Westminster serves as the meeting place for both the House of Commons and the House of Lords, the two houses of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Informally known as the Houses of Parliament, the Palace lies on the north ban ...

, is marked out with 250 plots for regimental and armed services associations. Participants are able to buy a wooden token of remembrance (originally remembrance crosses, now a variety of shapes for different religions, including for 'no faith') decorated with a

remembrance poppy A remembrance poppy is an artificial flower worn in some countries to commemorate their military personnel who died in war. Remembrance poppies are produced by veterans' associations, who exchange the poppies for charitable donations used to g ...

. The token is generally marked with the name of a member of the armed forces who was killed in action and planted in the appropriate plot. The packed lines of remembrance symbols in the separate plots can resemble a temporary military cemetery. After the Field of Remembrance closes, the crosses are collected and burnt, and the ashes are scattered at the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

battlefields in northern France and Belgium. Any money raised at the event is traditionally donated by The Poppy Factory to

The Royal British Legion The Royal British Legion (RBL), formerly the British Legion, is a British charity providing financial, social and emotional support to members and veterans of the British Armed Forces, their families and dependants, as well as all others in n ...

. The Field of Remembrance was first held in 1928, organised by George Arthur Howson, an officer in the

British Army The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...

in the First World War and founder and chairman of the

. In the first year, there were only two memorials: one dedicated to "

Tommy Atkins Tommy Atkins (often just Tommy) is slang for a common soldier in the British Army. It was certainly well established during the nineteenth century, but is particularly associated with the First World War. It can be used as a term of reference ...

" (a nickname for a rank-and-file soldier in the British Army); and one to Field Marshal

Douglas Haig, 1st Earl Haig Field Marshal Douglas Haig, 1st Earl Haig, (; 19 June 1861 – 29 January 1928) was a senior officer of the British Army. During the First World War, he commanded the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) on the Western Front from late 1915 unt ...

, founder of

, who had died in January 1928. The ANZAC Field of Remembrance at St. Andrew's Cathedral, Sydney, Australia was established in 1952, inspired by the Field of Remembrance in London. For the 90th anniversary of the

Poppy Appeal A remembrance poppy is an artificial flower worn in some countries to commemorate their military personnel who died in war. Remembrance poppies are produced by veterans' associations, who exchange the poppies for charitable donations used to g ...

in 2011, other Fields of Remembrance were established at

Belfast Belfast ( , ; from ga, Béal Feirste , meaning 'mouth of the sand-bank ford') is the capital and largest city of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan on the east coast. It is the 12th-largest city in the United Kingdom ...

Cardiff Cardiff (; cy, Caerdydd ) is the capital and largest city of Wales. It forms a principal area, officially known as the City and County of Cardiff ( cy, Dinas a Sir Caerdydd, links=no), and the city is the eleventh-largest in the United Kingd ...

, and

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian on the southern shore of t ...

. A Field of Remembrance was also created at

Lydiard Park Lydiard Park is a country park at Lydiard Tregoze, which was its former name, about west of central Swindon, Wiltshire, England, near Junction 16 of the M4 motorway. The park, which is included on the Historic England Register of Historic Par ...

in November 2011, close to

Royal Wootton Bassett Royal Wootton Bassett , formerly Wootton Bassett, is a market town and civil parish in Wiltshire, England, with a population of 11,043 in 2001, increasing to 11,385 in 2011. Situated in the north of the county, it lies to the west of the major ...

, in the shape 11-11-11-11, commemorating the 93rd anniversary of the

Armistice with Germany The Armistice of 11 November 1918 was the armistice signed at Le Francport near Compiègne that ended fighting on land, sea, and air in World War I between the Entente and their last remaining opponent, Germany. Previous armistices ...

at 11 am on 11 November 1918. File:The Guides to the Field of Remembrance Westminster Abbey - geograph.org.uk - 1575001.jpg, Noticeboards with guides to the plots on the Field of Remembrance at Westminster File:The Corps of the Royal Engineers memorial in the Field of Remembrance Westminster Abbey - geograph.org.uk - 1575007.jpg, An example plot, commemorating soldiers of the Royal Engineers File:Lest_we_forget_-_geograph.org.uk_-_1581547.jpg, Ranks of remembrance crosses at the Field of Remembrance File:Field of Remembrance Young Family 2009.JPG, A young family look at the crosses planted in the ANZAC Field of Remembrance in Sydney, Australia File:AJEX,_Westminster_Abbey_-_geograph.org.uk_-_1580201.jpg, Tokens of remembrance in the plot for the

Association of Jewish Ex-Servicemen and Women The Association of Jewish Ex-Servicemen and Women (AJEX; prior to 1939, the Association of Jewish Ex-Servicemen, and from 1928 to 1939, the Jewish Ex-Servicemen's Legion) is a non-political charitable organization that focuses on issues affecting ...

(AJEX), at the Field of Remembrance at Westminster

References

Field of Remembrance
The Royal British Legion
Field of Remembrance
PoppyScotland
Scotland's first field of remembrance opens
PoppyScotland, 7 November 2011

The Poppy Factory
Trauma and the memory of politics
Jenny Edkins, Cambridge University Press, 2003, , p. 22
The Great War and medieval memory: war, remembrance and medievalism in Britain and Germany, 1914-1940
Stefan Goebel, Cambridge University Press, 2007, , p. 35 {{coords, 51.4999, -0.1276, display=title Monuments and memorials in London The Royal British Legion