I AM sorry that the British Legion inaugurated its annual poppy appeal by spelling out the first line or two of John Macrae's In Flanders Fields in poppies.
Macrae's poem is essentially a sentimental pro-war recruiting piece dating from 1915, in which those who have already been killed call for others to come and be killed too: "Take up our quarrel with the foe".
Wilfred Owen, in Anthem for Doomed Youth, was much more realistic: "What Passing Bells For Those Who Die As Cattle?"
My own father, who came through what was once called the Great War, never sentimentalised it.
I don't think he ever forgave the war for depriving him of his beloved brother, my Uncle Percy, who was not so lucky.
I can't remember my father wearing a poppy or attending Remembrance Day celebrations.
Malcolm Pittock
St James Avenue
Bolton
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