AM calls for white poppy wreath-laying ceremony
Plaid Cymru Assembly Member for South Wales West, Bethan Jenkins, has today called on Neath Port Talbot Council to lay a wreath of white poppies alongside a wreath of red poppies at next month’s Remembrance Day services.
Aberystwyth Town Council lay both red and white poppy wreaths at their during separate remembrance services and Neath-based AM Bethan Jenkins believes Neath Port Talbot Council should follow suit in order to reflect the both the views of pacifists and ex-servicemen and women.
Speaking from the Senedd today Bethan Jenkins AM said:
“In Aberystwyth, arrangements were made for white and red wreaths of poppies to be laid on different days. The white poppy wreath is laid on Armistice Day – Saturday, 11 November – and the red poppies by members of the British Legion on Remembrance Sunday.
“The laying of a white wreath along with the traditional red would be a gesture to remember everybody who has died as a result of war. The white poppy symbolises remembrance of the victims of all wars, the dead, the living and refugees as well as the service personnel on all sides.
“Allowing people to remember in their own way, I believe, reflects a healthy society and I hope Neath Port Talbot Council will consider following the example of Aberystwyth Town Council.”
ENDS
Notes to Editors
Origins of the White Poppy
The idea of decoupling Armistice Day , the red poppy and later Remembrance Day from their military culture dates back to 1926, just a few years after the British Legion was persuaded to try using the red poppy as a fundraising tool in Britain.
A member of the No More War Movement suggested that the British Legion should be asked to imprint ‘No More War’ in the centre of the red poppies instead of ‘Haig Fund’ and failing this pacifists should make their own flowers.
The details of any discussion with the British Legion are unknown but as the centre of the red poppy displayed the ‘Haig Fund’ imprint until 1994 it was clearly not successful. A few years later the idea was again discussed by the Co-operative Women’s Guild who in 1933 produced the first white poppies to be worn on Armistice Day (later called Remembrance Day). The Guild stressed that the white poppy was not intended as an insult to those who died in the First World War – a war in which many of the women lost husbands, brothers, sons and lovers. The following year the newly founded Peace Pledge Union joined the CWG in the distribution of the poppies and later took over their annual promotion.
For further details visit www.ppu.org.uk
