It is the flower that symbolises both the sacrifices made by military personnel and the hope for a peaceful future.
The poppy has become a powerful and widely recognised emblem of remembrance.
Many people wear poppies as a sign of solidarity with those who have served their countries and to honour the memory of those who have perished in conflicts.
But more than a century after the tradition of wearing a red poppy on Remembrance Day was inspired by the famous war poem “In Flanders Fields” written by Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae during World War I, what inspires Poppyscotland volunteers to support veterans and their families to this day?
The Courier spoke to several Poppyscotland and military volunteers from units in Tayside and Fife as they took to part in a “City Poppy Day” in Dundee.
Remembrance Day: RAF Commanding Officer at Leuchars airfield
As the commanding officer of the diversionary airfield at Leuchars Station, Squadron Leader Al Frew commands the detachment of 50 RAF personnel still based in Fife almost nine years after the formal hand over of RAF Leuchars to the Army.
The RAF detachment’s main function is to keep open the Leuchars runway 24 hours a day, 365 days per year as an alternative landing place for Quick Reaction Alert fighter jets from RAF Lossiemouth.
For the second year in a row, however, the Leuchars-based RAF personnel have also been playing a key role as Poppyscotland volunteers, selling poppies in Dundee city centre.
On Saturday November 11, Squadron Leader Frew, 43, and 10 of his RAF colleagues are attending the annual Festival of Remembrance at Dundee’s Caird Hall.
On Sunday November 12, 25 RAF personnel are parading to the War Memorial in St Andrews alongside Army colleagues from Leuchars Station.
For society at large, however, he thinks it’s “extremely important” that people continue to wear the poppy with pride and to remember.
Why is it important to wear a poppy and mark Remembrance Day?
“For military people it’s a culture that’s bred into you from the minute you join up,” said Squadron Leader Frew, whose first ever visit to an RAF base was Leuchars in 1997 thanks to his geography teacher’s son being a pilot on 43 (F) Squadron.
“Even the symbol of the poppy and the ‘Last Post’ just does something to a service person.
“But I think it’s really important that the legacy of the poppy and what it symbolises lives on.
“It’s especially important within schools etc that we don’t forget the World War One/World War Two generations, because younger kids and even younger service personnel today only really remember Afghanistan and Iraq.
“It’s important that we make sure they know the heritage of the poppy and where it came from.”
Leuchars commanding officer has first hand experience of casualties of war
An air traffic controller by trade who joined up as an airman, Squadron Leader Frew, who’s originally from Ayrshire, has served with the RAF for 26 years.
He became an officer in 2019 and was promoted to squadron leader at Leuchars in April 2022.
It was when he attained the rank of station warrant officer at Brize Norton in Oxfordshire, however, that his poppy appeal affiliation began.
When a local poppy appeal co-ordinator in the nearby town of Carterton was unable to carry on because of failing health, the Brize Norton padre approached him asking if anything could be done to help.
The result was he became the local poppy appeal organiser and, for the three years he held the role, they raised £64,000.
However, his time at Brize Norton also impacted him in other ways.
He was the officiating warrant officer for 11 repatriations to the UK of fallen service personnel from operations in the Middle East.
“That side of life is really important to me,” he said.
“I always say to people it’s the worst and the best thing I’ve ever done in my career because you know what you did for those families bringing their loved ones back.
“But obviously the circumstances in which you are doing it is the worst possible.”
Remembrance Day: Dundee student and Universities Air Squadron pilot officer
As an acting pilot officer flying the Grob Tutor T1 with the East Of Scotland Universities’ Air Squadron based at Leuchars, Dundee University student Calum MacMillan is fortunate not to have lost any family or friends in combat.
However, as a regular visitor to Leuchars, which is home to the RAF detachment and Army personnel including the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards, he knows some of the locally-based serving military have been at the sharp end of conflict.
Originally from Balfron, Stirlingshire, the 23-year-old is in his fourth year of a mechanical engineering with renewables degree and has ambitions to join the Royal Navy as a pilot.
Bitten by the flying bug during a flying lesson at Cumbernauld Airport aged 15, instead of joining the RAF he decided to go to university where a friend inspired him to join the Universities’ Air Squadron.
Despite being the first member of his family to consider a full-time military career, however, the thread of remembrance connecting the generations is something he’s always been conscious of.
“I started learning the bagpipes aged eight, and on Remembrance Sunday we’d do a mile march through Strathblane, a village where my mum was from,” he said.
“You’d walk past people with their poppies and go to the cenotaph and church service.
“I’ve been part of events for Remembrance Sunday through most of my young life and have seen the impact it can have on local people.
“But already, selling the poppies, people come up to you and speak about their own stories.
“Being a friendly face for people to talk to – that’s half the battle sometimes.”
What’s it been like selling Remembrance Day poppies in Dundee?
Calum has been selling poppies in Dundee’s City Square and elsewhere alongside serving military personnel including members of the RAF contingent from Leuchars Airfield.
Armistice Day and Remembrance Sunday is a particularly “sombre moment” for serving personnel.
But he thinks it’s important people remember the military isn’t just about war.
The selling of poppies also helps raise the profile of its wider humanitarian role.
“Britain has a responsibility to be a guardian, a diplomat and a humanitarian force,” he said.
“Since we are a first world country, we have the opportunity to go and help people.
“But I think it is important for us not only to show a presence that this is what the military does behind the scenes, but that this is what the military does day to day as well.
“Because people don’t understand the full picture. At least I didn’t anyway.
“They are about more than just guns, bullets, big planes and big boats. A lot more than that.”
Remembrance Day: How did retired Tayside police officer get involved?
Retired Tayside police officer Colin MacColl has never served in the military.
However, his connections with the forces made headlines 11 years ago when his Perthshire sailor nephew mysteriously vanished in Dubai.
Leading Seaman Timmy MacColl, who was also originally from Killin, was last seen on May 27, 2012 during shore leave from HMS Westminster.
Despite extensive inquiries, his fate remains a riddle and his death was registered in 2014.
While his nephew will inevitably be on his mind this Remembrance Sunday, Colin’s support for the Poppyscotland appeal actually goes back 20 years to a day he was helping police the turnstiles before a Dundee United v Rangers game at Tannadice.
At a time when police officers had started wearing stab proof vests and therefore couldn’t easily wear a traditional poppy, he noticed some of the supporters were wearing poppy pin badges.
After contacting Poppyscotland and getting about 20 which he sold to fellow officers in Dundee, he was roped in to help sell poppies in local supermarkets.
Two decades on, it’s “snowballed” and he now has control over three poppy stalls including Tesco Riverside, Tesco South Road and the Tesco call centre at Kingsway in Dundee.
“I was never in the military, but when I joined the police back in 1978, a lot of the guys were ex-military and had done their national service,” said Colin, 63, who retired in 2014 after 36 years working as a police constable in Dundee.
“You were expected to wear a poppy.
“But some of your older colleagues would have a go at younger ones for not wearing a poppy.”
Colin takes a fortnight off to volunteer ahead of Remembrance Day
Colin, who’s always had an interest in military history, now works for Dundee City Council as a caretaker.
However, he takes a fortnight off every year to oversee the supermarket poppy stalls.
They pick the supermarkets because there’s a “massive footfall”.
The supermarkets also tend to be very helpful nowadays, he said, as they’ll electronically bank the cash for Poppyscotland.
When it comes to trying to “suss” who might buy a poppy, however, he laughs that he’s “given up”.
“There will be people who you might fully expect to come over and see you, but they blank you. And that’s fine,” he said.
“There are other people who look as though they don’t have two ha’pennies to rub together but they’ll be over and be ramming money into that collection tin.
“Generally there is some sort of military connection.
“But it also varies considerably in age.
“Last year on the Saturday, a wee 5.5 year-old girl came in with her gran.
“She’d been looking at the stall. She went over to Tayport or Newport.
“She came back the next day with her gran.
“Having been told about the poppies and the reason behind them, she’d gathered up all the apples in her gran’s garden, bagged them up, sat outside the gran’s house at the gate and sold them to neighbours and donated the money back.”
Remembrance Day: Former Royal Navy chef is Dundee city centre representative
Former Royal Navy chef Richard Wilkinson is the Poppyscotland representative for Dundee city centre.
The Lincoln-born 33-year-old, who left the Royal Navy last year after 13 years, is responsible for handing out all the poppy tins, the poppies themselves and speaking to local shops.
During his naval career, the Able Seaman served on tours and exercises around the world, serving on ships and with the Royal Marines.
Having struggled with the culture shock of leaving the navy, however, a resettlement course and subsequent role with Poppyscotland has helped him find a purpose that honours his past while connecting to the realities of life on civvy street.
“In the run up to Remembrance Sunday, I’m encouraging people to have a moment to remember those still on patrol and those who’ve made the ultimate sacrifice,” said Richard, who is also now a full-time student studying cyber security at Dundee and Angus College, and who also works part-time at Nethergate Tesco in Dundee.
“For me personally, being on operations, you meet people who had personal connections to Afghanistan who never returned.
“You always have that moment when you get triggered off.
“I’m not speaking for everyone in military, but Remembrance Day and Poppyscotland in general is a big thing.
“It gives the lads recognition.
“You go through some high pressured situations in the military. You do a lot of stuff mentally. You’ve got the banter in the military.
“But when you come out it’s gone.
“For that one moment on the 11th hour, of the 11th day, of the 11th month, when we stop and remember, we are with the boys again and just think of them,” he added.
“That means so much nowadays.
“It gives you that one piece of your life back.”
Grateful for public support ahead of Remembrance Day
Richard says that when he goes into Dundee shops, asking if they’ll support the poppy appeal, customers will quite often “drop pennies in” without being asked.
That means a lot, he added, especially in these financially challenged and “troublesome times”.
“It’s quite humbling,” he added.
“When I left the military I didn’t think anyone cared. It was like people only cared about themselves.
“People supporting our community – it gives us that sense of light in this world.”
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