Rainy Day in Leeds

Picture of poppy flower in the rain at Leeds.

Yesterday here in Leeds it rained for much of the day.

Poppy for Remembrance

Picture of Poppy...

Even in midsummer, when I saw the above poppy growing wild on some waste-ground near the back of the Royal Armouries museum here in Leeds, I think of the poem and the association with the trenches of the great war.

Lieutenant Colonel John Alexander McCrae (November 30, 1872 – January 28, 1918) was a Canadian poet, physician, author, artist and soldier during World War I and a surgeon during the battle of Ypres. He wrote the famous poem "In Flanders Fields".

In Flanders fields, the poppies blow Between the crosses, row on row

My grandfather was a tommy in the Great War and was gassed at Ypres and hospitalized in England, it is possible he passed through No 3 Canadian General Hospital (McGill) commanded by Lt Col John McCrae. They are both now long gone, but this week I feel we should remember them and those like them.