With the Royal British Legion recently launching its 2024 appeal, GB News asks its members whether young people still take pride in wearing a poppy.
RBL, which launched its first appeal in 1921, is returning for yet another year as the UK marks the 100th anniversary of the outbreak of the First World War.
The charity calls on 40,000 volunteers to distribute an astonishing 40 million poppies ahead of Armistice Day.
Poppies became synonymous with the sacrifice made by soldiers in the First World War after Canadian Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae penned ‘In Flanders Fields’ following his involvement in the Battle of Ypres in 1915.
The red poppy is worn as a show of support for the Armed Forces communities across the UK, Allied Forces and the Commonwealth.
Only donations from the sale of RBL’s red poppies go directly towards helping the Armed Forces community.
Despite the continued push, a dispute is emerging about whether young Britons still take pride in wearing the poppy.
Sir Keir Starmer supporting the poppy appeal
PA
A damning opinion poll released last year revealed that only one-in-three young people know that Remembrance Sunday commemorates the First World War Armistice.
That is compared with 53 per cent of Generation X, born between 1965 and 1980, and 62 per cent of baby boomers (born between 1946 to 1964).
The polling also found that baby boomers and Generation X are more likely to think that it is important to teach young people in schools about the First World War.
A young and old volunteer help in the RBL’s 2023 appeal
PA
More than 70 per cent of baby boomers believed it was “very important”, compared to just 53 per cent of millennials and 45 per cent of Gen Z.
The polling also revealed that baby boomers are twice as likely as Gen Z and millennials to wear a red poppy.
Do you think young Britons take pride in wearing the poppy? Have your say by leaving a message in the comments section below.
