Remembrance 1921 and how the D&S Times reported the 'Great Silence'

FOR the first time 100 years ago, the poppy graced remembrance commemorations and the D&S Times reported how it was immediately seized upon as the “Great Silence” was solemnly observed.

“The Flanders poppy was the emblem of gratitude and sacrifice proudly worn by thousands of citizens,” said the D&S of the Armistice Day commemorations in Darlington. “Many ladies willingly endured the extreme severity of the weather in the early part of the day in their voluntary duty of disposing of the flower to aid the funds of the British Legion.”

The paper began its coverage of the commemorations, on the third anniversary of the guns falling silent at the end of the “Great War”, by printing the first verse of John McCrae’s famous poem about in Flanders fields the poppies grow, and blow, between the rows of wooden crosses which marked the last resting place of countless soldiers.

Poppy seeds lie dormant for years until the earth is churned up, and then they suddenly spring to life. No earth is more churned up than farmland that has been fought over, stomped over, trenched, bombed, shelled and then, finally, dug up to receive the dead.

Inspired by McCrae’s poem, an American academic, Moina Michael, sold silk “miracle flowers” to delegates at a YMCA conference in New York in 1919 to raise funds for veterans. In 1920, the US adopted the poppy as its symbol of remembrance and in September 1921, Anna Guerin, a Frenchwoman who had been fundraising during the war in the US, brought the idea to Britain. The British Legion commissioned her to make one million poppies in France and then, on October 6, 1921, Earl Haig decreed that November 11 would be “Poppy Day” in Britain with eight million poppies for sale.

“The poppy forms a red mantle round many a soldier’s grave in Flanders, and Darlington’s full acceptance of the significance of the emblem was easily observable. There were 18,000 poppies on sale in Darlington, and so assiduous were the lady sellers that nearly the whole of them were sold.”

Darlington would raise in excess of £300 for the Legion, “a handsome total”.

remembrance poppy.

The symbol was also evident around the Boer War Memorial on St Cuthbert’s Green – beside the parish church – where the Cleveland Bridge works “syren” was heard at 11am. It was the signal for the large crowd to fall silent.

The chairman of the local branch of the Legion then laid a wreath of poppies and forget-me-nots at the memorial.

However, the D&S was outraged that there was no official town service, attended by the mayor, unlike in Richmond, where the mayor, Alderman TH Singleton, led the remembrance at the Market Cross.

Richmond had recently acquired not one but two war memorials: in July, at the head of Frenchgate, a memorial to the 9,000 dead members of the Green Howards who had been stationed in the town was unveiled, while on October 23, a memorial to the 101 local men who had been killed was unveiled in Friary Gardens. The official service, though, was still held in the Market Place where the mayor spoke of the “dauntless courage, untiring energy and the steadfastness to duty” which had made victory possible.

Similarly, in Barnard Castle, the chairman of the urban council, had led the proceedings around the Butter Market where a “large company of people” had gathered.

However, for all that Darlington’s council was “blighted by apathy” while the townspeople remembered reverently, the town was the scene of a historic, and emotionally charged, ceremony.

At Holy Trinity church, the Bishop of Durham, Dr Hensley Henson, and Captain Thomas Bradford, unveiled plaques dedicated to the 75 parishioners who had died and specifically to Capt Bradford’s three brothers: Lt James Bradford, 27, who had died on the Somme on May 14, 1917, having won the Military Cross; Brig-Gen Roland Bradford, 25, who had died on November 30, 1917, having won the Victoria Cross, and Lt-Cmdr George Bradford, 31, who made a deliberate decision to step to his death in a wash of gunshot on Zeebrugge harbour in order to secure his vessel so that his men could make it ashore. For this action, he too was awarded the Victoria Cross – they are the only brothers in the First World War to win Britain’s highest award for bravery.

The memorials unveiled 100 years ago yesterday in Holy Trinity Church to the only brothers in the First World War to win the Victoria Cross

The D&S noted that at the foot of one of the plaques was the peculiar words “Abide With Me”. Indeed the vicar of Holy Trinity had asked if more appropriate words should have been included, but the brothers’ mother, Amy, had told him that just days after receiving notification of Roland’s death she had received a letter from publishers De La Rue asking if they should go ahead with printing the 12,000 postcard-sized pictures that Roland had ordered, showing Christ with a soldier and the words “Abide With Me”, as Christmas gifts for each of the men in his brigade.

Abide With Me was the Durham Light Infantry’s hymn which Roland sang each day in the trenches.

Unveiling the plaques, Capt Bradford, who himself had won a Distinguished Service Order, said: “Their service was not a blind one. They knew that, terrible as war was it was more terrible still to surrender, and they were filled with the knowledge of the righteousness of their cause, and thus uncomplainingly laid down their lives for their friends.”

Then the D&S reported that Capt Bradford said: “Let them not forget those left behind. They must help the widows and fatherless, the halt, lame and blind. He did not simply mean charity, but the help of the brother smoothing away the rough places of the world, help that would enable them to live happy, useful lives.”

Can a more powerful or telling phrase – “the help of the brother smoothing away the rough places of the world” – ever have been uttered in the 100 years of remembrance since?