Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red

The Weeping Widow

I think most people have heard of the fabulous exhibition at the Tower of London called Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red (the title is taken from words found on the will of a soldier who died in Flanders).  It consisted of 888,246 ceramic poppies, one for each British and Colonial casualty of World War One. Such a simple concept that has captured the imagination of people world-wide. It has also re-connected us with that terrible war and the people, many our ancestors, who died in it. To see the carpet of poppies streaming out of window forming a sea of red around the moat of the Tower really brought home just how many people died, each poppy was a life lost. Unfortunately I could not go to see the installation in person before it closed on Remembrance Day, November 11th. But I was pleased to hear there will be national tour of the Weeping Widow and Wave parts of the installation from 2015 to 2018 after which the installations will be permanently exhibited at the Imperial War Museums in London and Manchester. Though these will not have the impact that original installation had, it will still be worth seeing and I will definitely go to see this when it come near where I live.

My Poppy

John Fell

However, I was one of the lucky people who was able to buy one of the poppies from the Tower, and it arrived not long after the installation closed. It is very beautiful and bigger than I expected and it now has pride of place in my living room. The poppies represent lives lost in World War One and I have dedicated my poppy to my great uncle John Fell who died in from wounds recieved at Ypres in 1915.