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MICHAEL THANKS POPPY DAY COLLECTORS

Folkestone and Hythe MP Michael Howard took time out today (11 November) to thank local hard working people who collect for the Royal British Legion Poppy Appeal.

The first official Legion Poppy Day was held in Britain on 11 November 1921, inspired by the poem In Flanders' Fields written by John McCrae. Some of the bloodiest fighting of World War I took place in the Flanders and Picardy regions of Northern France.

On the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month in 1918, the First World War ended. Civilians wanted to remember the people who had given their lives for peace and freedom. 

An American War Secretary, Moina Michael, began selling Poppies to friends to raise money for the ex-Service community. Since then the Poppy Appeal has been a key annual event in the nation's calendar.