For many decades, "The Ode" has been the creed of the Returned & Services League of Australia. It is, in fact, a stanza from the elegy "For the Fallen" by the English poet and writer, Laurence Binyon. It is important that we remember both the words and also the sentiment which it carries whenever we recite our creed. Eventhough we recite "The Ode" at our regular get-togethers, it is also worth taking a couple of minutes every so often to remember those who served and who are less fortunate than yourself as these were your friends, your buddies, your mates.

The poppy legend originated in China. A white flower from which a potent drug was distilled, it was called "the flower of forgetfulness". Genghis Khan brought some of the seed westward but after the battle the flower became red. In the centre of each was a cross. It was found that on many battlefields, when everything else had been laid to waste, the landscape was soon ablaze with blood-red blooms. On the Somme battlefield in 1917 (and again after the War was over), the land, where thousands of Allied casualties of World War 1 are buried, burst forth in a blaze of scarlet with patches of yellow charlock and white chamomile due to the seeds being released when a grave was dug.

Lord McCauley drew attention to the strange link of the poppy with battle and put forward the suggestion it should be regarded as the flower of sacrifice and memorial. The artificial red poppies worn on Armistice Day/Remembrance Day, on the 11th day of November, are more familiar to Australians and New Zealanders than the real flower.

This information is courtesy of Legacy