Flanders fields still blooming

In Flanders fields the poppies blow Between the crosses, row on row?
These words from John McCrae's poem In Flanders Fields are as poignant and relevant today as when they were written in 1915.
For traditionalists the words are also part of the sentiment that sparks generosity in Wanganui on Poppy Day when RSA collectors stand with boxes of poppies.
Bev Henderson and Fay Shaw, for instance, enjoyed yesterday's sunshine and repartee at the corner of Victoria Ave and Ridgway St.
They're members of the entertainment group the RSA Golden Girls, who are always at this spot on Poppy Day.
"It's a lovely sunny day," Mrs Henderson said. "It's been good."
It's the RSA's main fundraiser in aid of returned servicemen and women and their dependants in need.
Usually held on the Friday before Anzac Day, Poppy Day made its debut in 1922.
Poppies are correctly worn on the left lapel, signifying remembrance of the nation's war dead and support for the RSA's welfare role.
The association of the red poppy (the Flanders poppy) with battlefield deaths dates back to the Napoleonic wars.
Poppies were the first plants to grow in the churned-up soil of soldiers' graves around Flanders.
The link was renewed over a century later on the Western Front during World War 1.
Lieutenant-Colonel McCrae, a Canadian medical officer, drew inspiration from the death of a comrade in Belgium.
McCrae's verses were written in pencil on a page torn from his despatch book and sent anonymously to the English magazine Punch, where they first appeared. Three years later, McCrae himself died of pneumonia in France.
A French woman, Madame E Guerin, conceived the idea of widows and orphans making artificial poppies in devastated areas of northern France for sale by veterans' organisations.
In much of the world Poppy Day is associated with Armistice Day in November.
This Chronicle article is based on information from RSA historian Stephen Clarke.