Poppy seeds to be sown in Dartford to remember First World War
by Lizzie Massey
One million poppy seeds are to be sown all over Dartford to
mark the 100th anniversary of the start of the First World War.
Greenhithe's Royal British Legion branch came up with the idea
to plant poppies all over the UK and Ireland for the anniversary in
2014.
At a memorial service in Stone today, Dartford council will
present the RBL with a cheque for £1,000 in exchange for one
million poppy seeds for the borough.
Cllr David Mote (Con), who represents Greenhithe, said: "We
wanted to use this Remembrance to promote the campaign.
"We will be planting the seeds in Central Park and handing them
out to schools for the children to get involved as well."
Greenhithe RBL chairman Phil Berry is also keen to get schools,
cadet forces, Cub and Scout groups, and other youth organisations
involved.
He said: "We would like to see the UK covered in real Flanders
poppies during August 2014 and we are very grateful to our local
borough councillors for persuading the council to support us.
"Central Park is a perfect place for our poppy planting
initiative and we hope it will encourage others to help plant
Dartford red."
It is hoped that the initiative will spread all over the UK and
more than 5,000 members of the RBL Riders' Branch have agreed to
distribute the seeds and plant them all over the country for people
who may be unable to do so themselves.
Graham Mentor-Morris is also a committee member for the Real
Poppy campaign, as well as being involved with Greenhithe RBL and
the RBL Riders.
He said: "It started as a small idea between some guys in the
club, but we hope that by 2014 the country will be blanketed in
red.
"It's taken us a while to get to this stage, in fact for the
first few weeks we had been counting out the seeds individually by
hand in 1,000, 5,000 and 10,000 packets.
"Then we realised we could just weigh the bags – we got the
mickey taken for that.
"Now the idea that along every motorway and on every verge,
roundabout, field and garden there will be thousands of red poppies
growing doesn’t seem so impossible."
Prime Minister David Cameron gave a special mention to the RBL
in Greenhithe when he announced £50 million of funding to
commemorate the centenary.
He said: "I think we should make this centenary a truly national
moment, but also something that actually means something in every
locality in our country."
Meanwhile, in Gravesend, a dummy covered in more than
1,000 poppies (pictured right) will visit a Remembrance
Service on the back of a motorbike today.
The flowered mannequin, known as Pops, will be driven to
Gravesend’s war memorial on Windmill Hill. Pops was created last
summer by RBL member Andrea (Andy) Armitage.
She died in December aged 60 after suffering a heart attack in
her sleep, just weeks after helping co-ordinate the borough’s most
successful Poppy Appeal which raised more than £42,000.
07/11/12
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