R for Remembrance

The 11th November is the annual Remembrance Day here in the UK and is also known as Armistice Day, Remembrance Day or Poppy Day. This year takes on added significance as it is the centenary of the outbreak of the First World War: 1914-1918.

This year, a major artistic installation entitled 'Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red' sees the Tower of London's famous dry moat filled with over 800,400 ceramic poppies to create a powerful visual commemoration for the First World War Centenary. This has proved to be a major event for Londoners and so far over four million have visited it. It is visually impressive and very emotional. particularly for those who have relatives who perished in the Great War. One just is moved by the vastness and enormity of it all and all those who did not survive that war. Each poppy represents a life lost in that war. 

The Second World War is the one I relate to, being a war baby born at the end of 1945 and growing up in the '50s. Hard to believe the First World War was only 20 years earlier - but seems like another world now, with the primitive filming of the time (when Silent Cinema was in its infancy). 

Even at night the poppies are lit up. These ceramic poppies have all been sold, with a percentage going to charities, and the installation will be taken down after the 11th November, though there has been public demand for the exhibition to remain at the Tower. The installation is the work of ceramic artist Paul Cummins, from Derbyshire.