90 years of the Poppy Appeal

Poppies were first suggested as a symbol of Remembrance in the USA by Miss Moina Michael in November 1918 and were adopted by the American Legion in 1920. In August 1921, Madame Guerin introduced her poppies, made by a French-American charity's widows, to the British Legion. The next suitable occasion for a poppy-linked appeal was Armistice Day and so the first Poppy Appeal was born. They didn't know if it would work but ordered nine million poppies !

On the day itself, the first poppy was bought in London a few seconds after midnight. From that moment it was a seller's market: the poppies were on sale at an official price of threepence but before breakfast single petals were selling Smithfield Market for £5. All day long motor cars fetched poppies and crate after crate was emptied until supplies ran out. A message from Queen Mary brought sellers to Buckingham Palace, but hearing that poppies were in short supply she bought only two. A basket of poppies auctioned at Christies's raised nearly £500.

The first appeal raised £106,000 (nearly £30 million in today's terms) and all the poppies were supplied from France. In 1922 the "Poppy Factory" was established in the UK to keep costs down and employing disabled ex-Servicemen to make the poppies. Three times as many poppies were ordered for the next appeal and it made £204,000 with lower overheads.

Note that poppies were "sold" when the appeal started but charity legislation now requires them to be 'distributed in return for donations'.

The appeal grows

Right from the beginning, supporters used novel and original methods to advertise the appeal as shown by this picture of an elephant in Leeds.

The appeal built up quickly to produce its best results (in real terms, adjusted for inflation) during the 1930s and 1940s with record donations during the Second World War.

There were worries about supply of materials to make the poppies during the war and whether supplies would survive bombing raids but the public rallied and showed its generousity and support.

Change of image

By the 1960s, the appeal was facing problems that are all too familiar today - a decline in the number of collectors and the need to recruit from the younger age groups.

The buttonhole range was reduced to a single style of poppy and young girls were recruited from universities and technical colleges and equipped with new style collecting boxes and colourful plastic bags of poppies. With the "swinging sixties" in full force, mini-skirts were the order of the day.

A single poppy meant that people could "give what they wanted" instead of having a set amount and this helped when the coinage changed with the introduction of decimalisation. Inflation continued to affect the collection during the 1970s and early 80s but the Falkands War saw a surge in awareness of the needs of ex-Servicemen.

As the concept of "celebrity" grew with the public, the 1980s saw the Poppy Appeal attracting support from well known figures such as actor Michael Caine, comedian Jim Davidson and Falklands veteran Simon Weston.

But there was serious competition; by the early 1990s there were 170,000 charities in Britain and the number was increasing at the rate of ten a day.

In 1995, our current logo was introduced and the poppy became an integral part of the Legion's public image.

Recent Poppy Appeals

Over the past 15 years, the Legion has called on a variety of celebrities and  beneficiaries to help launch and promote the Poppy Appeal, from a wide range of locations.

In 1991 at the time of the First Gulf War, the launch was held in the Kuwait Embassy in London and the following year at El Alamein with the Prime Minister John Major. Another Prime Minister, Tony Blair featured with Arsene Wenger in 1998.

1997 bridged the generation gap with The Spice Girls teaming up with Dame Vera Lynn. Dame Vera had an encore performance in 2009 pairing with Hayley Westenra. The music industry featured quite often with Westlife (1999), SClub 7 (with Thora Hird in 2000), Hear'Say (2001), Katherine Jenkins (2006) and The Saturdays (2010).

Sporting stars Kelly Holmes and Michael Vaughan featured in 2004 and 2005 respectively. In 2007, our beneficiaries took centre stage with a new star, Poppy Man, who went to Basra in 2008 for our award winning live broadcast.

Galleries

90th photo gallery