HI all please do not forget to by your poppy,s this year , if you see me please by me and stop one .
it is not just for the men and women who lost there live,s in WW1 and WW2 .as we remember
them and will never be forgotten .
as of 24.10.2009.. so please help.........
Thank you ....
cossak .....for our today they gave there tomorrow..

Cossak,

Like most on the Forum I wear mine with pride, Where abouts in Hertfordshire will you be?

Scottie.

Hello,

I would be amazed if any GWF member forgets to buy and wear a poppy.

Sean.

Which Sunday has been designated Remembrance Sunday this year? the 8th or the 15th?

Told last night it is the 8th. Ralph.

I don't like to be picky, but the quotation is:

When you go home, tell them of us and say
For their tomorrow, we gave our today

It comes from the 2nd Division memorial at Kohima.

Well, it used to say exactly that on the memorial (though the epitaph is actually circa 1916)... It's now been changed...

Is nothing sacred?

And..........it originally said:

When you gone home,
Tell them of us and say:
For their tomorrow,
these gave their today.

As per the verse by Edmonds.

I don't know how old this shot is , but, if this is the case, then it looks like the inscription has changed twice over the years...

Obviously the answer is no, nothing is sacred!

But I will reinforce cossack's original sentiment - I'm sure we'll all be wearing our poppies with pride. Incidentally, how many Forum members wear the small enamel lapel pin style, year round?

Me for one (I rarely wear the paper ones...I always lose them and end up wearing a nice shiny pin instead!). The one that sees the most light of day is the Canadian "two poppies and a maple leaf" that lives constantly on my coat along with a small (same size)enamelled cornflower.

Just going back to the inscription momentarily... I wonder just how many other phrases/quotes/verses, etc on memorials have been modernised over the years to make them "read better" to modern eyes? (The Burma Star Association memorial at Kohima also has the "new(est)" epitaph inscribed upon it, so i wonder if this is now the officially accepted line?)

Dave.

I do too. Wear my small enamel poppy year round, that is. Nothing fancy, just the simple single poppy, for a simple single reason....

Cheers,

Nigel

And whilst wearing your poppy provides a traditional, visible message of support, the RBL have also embraced new methods of optimising income and increasing donations in support of the Poppy Appeal.

Visit here for details

'They shall not grow old' rather than "they shall grow not old"
or 'nor the years condemn' rather than "nor the years contemn"
ref For the Fallen | First World War.com - Prose & Poetry - Laurence Binyon

but in respect of:
When you gone home,
Tell them of us and say:
For their tomorrow,
these gave their today.
It really does depend on how you say it and where the implied punctuation is (Lynn Truss would have a field day)

To my understanding
When you gone home,
Tell them of us and say:
Apart from needing a "'re", to make it read When you're gone home It is the dead speaking to a visitor at the memorial. The colon then implies that
For their tomorrow,
these gave their today.
Is what the dead are instructing the visitor on their return (to home) to say to friends etc., and - to my modern eyes - I feel that I need to say
For your tomorrow, [i.e. the visitor now speaking as instructed to their friends - it is the friends' tomorrow], but then the "these" in
these gave their today.
confuses me because it implies that the speaker (the visitor gone home) is still in close proximity to the names on the memorial.
However, without the colon it is then the dead speaking throughout referring to the tomorrow of "them" (those at home), and the "these" then makes sense.

Perhaps that is why you should not over-analyse!

BTW when do most people wear their poppies? In the week running up to Remembrance Sunday and on through to Armistice day? Or just from when-ever you buy it?

David

David,

That is the only place I have seen "contemn" as opposed to "condemn" in any printed version of the poem. The punctuation is different to the version in my "Treasury of Golden Verse" which has condemn "condemn".

I have always interpreted Edmonds' lament as if it were spoken by the dead.

Poppies officially to be worn from the day they go on sale (third week in October) until 11th November IIRC.

I wear my Poppy Pin[1],my RBL Collector/Organiser 10year{now nearly 20...}Pin & RBL Poppy Appeal "Will" badge on my uniform shirt [1] & Hi Viz Jacket every day!!
I usually wear my actual "Poppy" from the start of Remembrancetide {this year 24th October} until collections cease on the 11th November.

Well, Googling "nor the years contemn", brings up a hornet' nest of discussion. Personally I am with the comment that, "Contemn was in common use at the time; it means to hold in scorn or contempt and, of course, was redolent of the Kaiser's description of the British Expeditionary Force", but unless someone knows of a signed original, I guess we will never know.

David

HI all looks if i have caused some concern about the Quotation i have put into my message .
FOr that i am sorry i do know the correct quotation this is my short version ,
" the quote was said to me by a priest at goose green also given the last rites ,
if my quote is that bad if some one would take it of. the message .
cossak

I wear my small poppy all year round and thanks to the fact I tied the plastic tie to hard around the big one on the car grill that will have to stay until it falls off.

Mick

Hi all sorry if i have upset the members of the forum by my mis quotation , the correct one i i do know the " quote i use was said to me by a priest at goose green in 1982 when i was found presumed dead " he was being shot at by the opposition in his hurry mis quoted and i have allways
used the mis quote as my own .
so if members do not like it would you be kind enough to remove it thank you cossak

Cossak - I'm sure you haven't upset anyone - just provoked a typically robust discussion on how the quotation has changed over the years.

Many thanks for starting this thread - until I saw it, I hadn't realised how close we were to Remembrance Sunday. And also thanks for sharing the story of how you came to hear it

Alan

Cossak,

I for one am not "upset", by any possible mis-quotation - the sentiment is ultimately more important. I do, however, have an interest in understanding what the original may have been and understanding how it has evolved (hence my interest in the other quote). Sometimes evolutions are "dead-ends" and a nudge may cause a reversion back to a previous version.

If anything it is people like me that help threads to wander a little off-topic who should be apologising!

David

An Edinburgh pub had a box of poppies and collecting tin on its bar on Thursday 8 October.

This is quite in order there is nothing to prevent a private organisation having Poppies on sale,or a RBL All Year Round Collection Box,on display & in use, all year round in/on their premises,if they so wish, it is the Street Collections that have the allocated collecting period,so all Charities have a fair crack of the whip...

During the last collecting year the All Year Round boxes I put out proved very popular and increased my branch's takings by 8%.

Garth

Upset? Far from it: it's been a good GWF discussion. I've enjoyed it.