Silk poppies being manufactured at Richmond during the 1930s.
(HISTORIC MILITARY PRESS)
AN IMPORTANT artefact dating from the early days of the Poppy Appeal has undergone vital conservation work at the National Army Museum, writes Alexander Nicoll.
It was in 1922 that Earl Haig established the first poppy factory in Richmond, Surrey. Four years later Lady Haig established a poppy factory in Edinburgh to produce poppies exclusively for Scotland. Not only were the Scottish poppies of a different design to those sold elsewhere in the UK, but from its inception the Scottish Poppy Appeal has always operated independently from The Royal British Legion’s appeal in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.
