“BLOOD SWEPT LANDS AND SEAS OF RED”
During a visit to London last week, I managed to take in the moving “Last Post” ceremony at the Tower of London. An artistic floral tribute of ceramic poppies is being laid in the surrounding moat, each poppy representing the life of a British and Commonwealth soldier lost in the Great War. Poppies are placed daily as the tribute painfully grows in awe inspiring size. The final flower will be put in place on November 11, representing Canadian private George Lawrence Price, traditionally recognized as the last soldier of the British Empire to have died in the great conflict. Somewhere in the that vast sea of red poppies is one for Lieutenant Alexis Helmer of Ottawa, whose death inspired Canadian Lt. Colonel John McCrae’s famous poem, “In Flanders Fields,” which elevated the lowly poppy to the iconic symbol of the sacrifice of World War I throughout the British Commonwealth.
Check it out if you’re in town!