Remembering the fallen of WWI: Poppy appeal launched in Belgium

The Royal British Legion’s annual Poppy Appeal has been launched in Belgium by British Ambassador Anne Sherriff.

At a ceremony at the British Residence in Brussels, she paid tribute to the fallen of world war one and the appeal that raises funds for the British veteran organisation.  

The ambassador said the appeal was a “symbol of resilience, remembrance and recognition” of those who has “sacrificed their lives” for future generations. 

“Here in Belgium there were so many good young men who laid down their lives for freedom” and the British Legion served to ensure that both these and their surviving families “are not overlooked,” she added.

The annual fund raising appeal was a reminder also, she noted, that freedom “is very much worth defending.”

Chair of the Royal British Legion Brussels Branch, Dennis Abbott, told The Bulletin: "The red poppy is a universal symbol of Remembrance, indelibly linked with the battlefields of the First World War and John McCrae's poignant tribute to a fallen friend, 'In Flanders Fields'.”

Funds raised by the sale of poppies enable the RBL to support serving personnel, veterans and their families in times of need, wherever and whenever that need arises, he explained.

"Here in Belgium, the RBL has provided a lifeline – literally in some cases – for those who have served and suffered in conflicts, up to the present day. The funds raised by the public pay for health and well-being services as well as financial support in urgent cases,” added Abbott, a former captain in the British army reserve who served in Basra, Iraq, in 2003.

The British embassy’s defence attaché Group Captain John Dickson described the British Legion’s work as an “amazing cause.” He signalled out two Chelsea Pensioners, Norman Bareham and Tommy Fox, who had travelled from the UK specially for the occasion.

The pensioners, retired soldiers from the British army who live at the Royal Hospital Chelsea in London, wear distinctive scarlet and blue uniform. Bareham said the ceremony was a “touching” reminder of why the British Legion was started in the first place. “It is all about remembering not just the dead from two world wars but right up to the present day, he said.”

Among the audience was Kathleen Johnson, a UK-Belgian national, whose father Eric Johnson first came to Belgium soon after WW2, whereupon he joined the Royal British Legion.

He became a standard bearer for the charity and its Brussels branch for the next 50 years until his death, aged 96, in 2021. She said: “This appeal is so important still because it gives us a chance to remember all soldiers, many of them very young, who gave their lives for freedom.”

Also present was Jean-Pierre Pede who is vice chair of the RBL’s Brussels branch and whose father-in-law was a war veteran and one of the first to liberate Brussels after WW2.  “The appeal is a special period of the calendar each year, lasting until the end of November, when we can help raise funds for veterans’ families and loved ones,” he said. 

Centrepiece of the event was a moving performance, called “Lest We Forget”, by a group of Belgian-based artists and musicians. They included Belfast-born Graham Andrews, a professional writer, who served in the army in the 1960s and in Yemen. “People forget what an awful conflict that was so this is a chance to remember,” he said.

Another participant was Oliver Gray, a musician, singer and song writer well known on the Belgian music scene. He said the event was “particularly poignant” for him as his great uncle had been an army officer in Ypres in WW1. 

The poppy appeal launch comes ahead of remembrance ceremonies across Belgium on 11 November to mark the signing of the Armistice in 1918.

A key event for the RBL and the British Embassy will be a special ceremony at the Commonwealth War Graves Commission Cemetery at Heverlee, near Leuven, on 9 November. It is the resting place for over 1,000 casualties from Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Poland, South Africa, the UK and USA.

Photos: (main image) from left: Tommy Fox, Anne Sherriff, Ambassador to Belgium, Patrick Buerms, Chair Ypres branch, Sid Wilkins, Chair Antwerp branch, Dennis Abbott, Chair Brussels branch, Norman Bareham, Gp Capt John Dickson ©British Embassy in Belgium