The Flanders Fields Poppy

Remembering

1914-1918 Reference

Poems

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The American Legion Adopts the Memorial Poppy

By 1920 Moina Michael was beginning to lose hope that the Memorial Poppy idea would ever come to fruition and was in a dilemma about whether to pursue her own academic career or whether to abandon it in order to devote herself entirely to the Memorial Poppy campaign.

On 18 August, 1920 she discovered by chance that the Georgia Department of the American Legion was to convene in two days' time in Atlanta. She searched out the delegates in Atlanta prior to the convention and the Navy representative promised to present her case for the Memorial Poppy to the Convention.

The Georgia Convention subsequently adopted the Poppy but omitted the Torch symbol. The Convention also agreed to endorse the movement to have the Poppy adopted by the National American Legion and resolved to urge each member of the American Legion in Georgia to wear a red poppy each 11th November.

One month later on 29 September, 1920 the National American Legion convened in Cleveland and agreed to make the Flanders Fields Memorial Poppy its national emblem of remembrance.

Official Recognition of the Memorial Poppy

The Flanders Fields Memorial Poppy was adopted by the following organisations in the years following the end of the Great War:

• 9 November, 1918:
  The Twenty-fifth Conference of YMCA Overseas Secretaries, Columbia University, New York City

• 4 December, 1918:
  The Twenty-eighth Conference of YMCA Overseas Secretaries, Columbia University, New York City

• 6 February, 1919:
  The Calvary Baptist Church, New York City

• 9 April, 1919:
  The Home Economics Club, Hannibal, Missouri

• Summer, 1919:
  Several patriotic organisations in Georgia

• 20 August, 1920:
  Georgia Department American Legion

• 29 September, 1920:
  The National American Legion

• 1920:
  The American and French Children's League

• September 1921:
  The National American Legion Auxiliary

• Autumn 1921:
  The Earl Haig's British Legion Appeal Fund

• Spring, 1922:
  The Veterans of Foreign Wars

Next page: Tributes to Moina Michael

Acknowledgements

The Miracle Flower, The Story of the Flanders Fields Memorial Poppy, by Moina Michael

Copyright Joanna Legg & Graham Parker © 1999 All rights reserved