It has been an enduring symbol of remembrance for Britain’s war dead and a gesture of support for the country’s armed forces and veterans for more than 100 years.
But the number of people wearing red poppies in the run-up to Armistice Day on November 11 and Remembrance Sunday has appared to have been in decline in recent years.
And some volunteers say they are selling fewer than in the past.
The Daily Mail found only a small percentage of shoppers displaying poppies, and places selling them in short supply, in a survey of towns and cities across the UK, including areas which were heavily bombed in World War Two.
Reasons given for their apparent slump in popularity range from younger people shunning them, to problems finding volunteers to sell them and even complaints about the new plastic-free poppies made solely out of paper which were first introduced in 2023.
Poppies became forever linked with the horror of World War One when they were a common sight on the Western Front, flourishing in fields churned up by fighting and shelling.
The flowers famously provided Canadian doctor John McCrae with inspiration for his poem ‘In Flanders Fields’, which he wrote whilst serving in Ypres in 1915.
A campaign for the poppy to be made a symbol of remembrance grew after the war ended in 1918, and artificial poppies were first sold in 1921 in support of the Earl Haig Fund for ex-servicemen and the families of those who had died.
The British Legion which became the Royal British Legion in 1971 founded a factory staffed by disabled ex-servicemen making poppies in 1922.
The number of people wearing red poppies in the run up to Armistice Day is reducing, some sellers say, and the Daily Mail had trouble finding stalls in certain parts of the country
Only four people from a crowd of nearly 100 people were spotted wearing poppies at Liverpool Street Station
Poppy sellers from the Royal British Legion had a stand at Liverpool Street Station but few people passing buy bought one
The annual Poppy appeal continues to be the RBL’s biggest annual fund-raising event, bringing in £51.4m last year with 40,000 volunteers distributing 40 million poppies, according to the armed force’s charity.
But that total is still down on pre-Covid levels – the record of £55m set in 2018.
Sales slumped by more than £8m the next year, to hit £46.5m in 2019, and plunged even further during Covid and lockdowns in 2020 to £27.9m.
While sales recovered to £42.2m in 2021, they appeared to plateau to £39.9m in 2022 and £41.9m in 2023 before last year’s uptick.
The Daily Mail spotted just five shoppers with poppies on the pedestrianised high street of Bideford in North Devon. Several shop windows contained Remembrance Day displays, although only a handful of shops were selling poppies.
Ray Eyres, owner of Mill Street Butchers which had a poppy box on his counter, said: ‘I’ve not sold many at all this year to be honest with you.
‘It’s got so bad I’ve started putting my own money in just so the collecting tin isn’t quite so empty. My regulars have all bought them and I’ve encouraged customers to put their small change in but that’s about it.
‘I haven’t seen many poppies around town either, I don’t know whether that’s because the weather has been so mild that people haven’t realised it’s November or if everybody just has too many other things to worry about. I hope there will be a sudden rush before the 11th.’
At the town’s Morrisons supermarket, former Royal Marine Captain Derek Sargent, 78, who organises collections for several neighbouring towns said: ‘You don’t see a lot of people wearing poppies in Bideford, which is a shame.
At Whitechapel tube Station it was possible to donate to a food bank and to receive a free Koran in English, but not to purchase a poppy
Outside Stratford Station there were preachers and charity collection workers but no poppy sellers
‘We used to have a lot more collectors, but it’s a sign of the times. People who used to do it have died off and not been replaced.
‘The problem with organising Poppy Day is the closure of the British Legion branches means you lose that network of volunteers to do it, so they are relying on people with no background in the services.
‘I’ve been inundated with people who want to donate but there’s not enough places to do it. The human element is really important. If you just have a table with poppies on it, you won’t collect a fraction of the money that you would with somebody like me there.’
Mr Sargent insisted that young people were still being taught about the importance of remembrance with many of the 65 collection kits he distributes every year going to schools.
Torridge – the area surrounding Bideford – played a vital role in World War Two, and nearby beaches which closely resembled those in Normandy were used to test amphibious equipment for the D-Day landings.
The area also hosted thousands of American troops and welcomed evacuees from heavily bombed cities. An Honour Roll in the church of St. Mary contains the names of 90 men who died during the war.
Only a small percentage of shoppers were wearing poppies on Friday morning when a Daily Mail reporter visited the town centre of King’s Lynn, Norfolk.
Most of those sporting poppies were over retirement age and nobody wearing one appeared to be under 35 years old, despite the town being known for its RAF links and just 10 miles from RAF Marham which is home to the UK’s F35 fighters.
Inside Westfield in Stratford, poppy seller Liam Adam said he was doing brisk business at his stall
Mr Adam said he had sold around 60 poppies on Friday morning and even received a single donation of £40 for one
Trevor Bruns, a local stallholder and long-time East End resident, said he would buy a poppy in Plaistow if he could but was not able to find any
Two residents of King’s Lynn were killed and 13 were injured during a Zeppelin bombing raid on January 19, 1915, in World War One, and another 57 civilians were killed and 41 injured in 14 air raids during World War Two.
Poppy sellers were this week on duty at tables set up in the town’s Sainsbury’s, Morrisons and Tesco stores – but only a small number of other shops and outlets had boxes of poppies and collecting tins or jars on their counters.
The only business selling poppies on the High Street appeared to be the Hairshare salon which was selling them for the first time in more than ten years.
The salon’s manager Emma Cruickshank, 44, said: ‘We used to have a person come in who would ask us if we wanted a box, and leave us one. They would then come back and pick up the money we collected, but that all stopped years ago.’
Junior stylist Lucy Jaggard, 20, said she arranged for a box of poppies to be supplied to the salon this year after customers last year kept answering where they could buy one.
She contacted the Royal British Legion’s head office which directed her to a local organiser who gave her a link so she could order one online at a cost of £4.50.
Lucy said: ‘It was a bit of a process to go through. We always join in the silence every year, and we thought we should sell poppies as well. Customers have been buying them when they leave, and we have got £27.50 so far. We will be sending all the money back to the Legion.’
Retired nurse Bridget Cornwell, 74, who was having her hair done, said she used to sell poppies door-to-door in the nearby villages of Ashwicken and Bawsey until RBL officials put a stop to the practice.
Retired plumber Bob Melville, 75, from Wisbech, Cambridgeshire, who was sporting a poppy while out with his partner Sheila Bottesi, 82, said: ‘There are definitely less places selling them. I got mine at a supermarket this year, and it was the first time I made a donation by card.
Poppies were few and far between in the Whitechapel area of Tower Hamlets in east London where hardly anyone on the high street was wearing one
There are poppy decorations on the streets of Wimbledon with postboxes knitted with the flowers
‘Years ago, they used to push them a bit more, and you had sellers in the street. They were everywhere you looked and it was great. We can’t forget the people who gave up their lives in wars.’
Kelly Thomas, the assistant manager at the Veterans at Ease charity shop in King’s Lynn said she had been disappointed about only being given a box of plain paper poppies to sell, rather than a selection including more elaborate metal poppies and key rings.
Kelly said she had developed her own fund-raising idea by having a ‘poppy tree’ in her shop, featuring crocheted poppies knitted by a group of women in Downham Market.
The east London borough of Newham, which lost more than 3,000 of its residents during World War Two either as civilians killed in the Blitz or military personnel, had hardly any poppy sellers on duty when the Daily Mail visited.
No poppies appeared to be on sale at Stratford station or in the nearby Stratford Shopping Centre, although staff at both places said volunteer sellers did visit on some other days.
One shopping centre staff member said: ‘The sellers have stopped coming so much in the last few years.’
The middle of the station had a poppy-bordered sign while staff and commuters could be seen wearing poppies, despite them not being on sale, although there was an evangelist Christian stall and a Save the Children charity appeal outside the station
The lack of poppies being worn in Liverpool Street came despite the presence of friendly, personable sellers, who were stationed across two desks at either end of the railway terminus
The Stratford Centre shopping centre had a poppy memorial display but fewer people appear to be wearing them
A flower seller said: ‘It is mainly old people who wear poppies – younger people don’t tend to wear them now.’
The shopping centre boasted a memorial display paying tribute to Newham residents who fought and died in the war, with their pictures and stories emblazoned on large signs, and a silhouette of a soldier, alongside handwritten messages from shoppers, thanking servicemen and women.
Staff revealed that a brass band was due to perform at the centre at the weekend, to prepare for the day of commemorations on Remembrance Sunday.
But a flower seller at the centre, whose family have operated a stall for 90 years, said he felt Remembrance Day efforts had massively declined in recent years.
‘I asked for a tin, I couldn’t get one. There used to be a man inside Sainsbury’s selling them but he’s not there any more,’ he said.
‘I remember him, he was a big soldier bloke… You can’t buy poppies anywhere in London now.’
Another shopkeeper, who was sporting a poppy, said: ‘I had a couple come in and ask for a poppy wreath and we had to say we haven’t got any.
‘I think there should be someone in every market selling them. My daughter had to go to North Weald to get me this one.’
While there were was no shortage of people wearing a poppy in Stratford, there were far fewer in other areas of Newham.
London’s biggest shopping centre had no one selling poppies outside its entrances on Friday
A general view of a poppy tifo banner for Remembrance Sunday before the Premier League match at the Stadium of Light, Sunderland
In Plaistow, at the heart of the borough, a walk up and down the high street revealed only one elderly man and one little boy wearing the symbol.
Few businesses in the area seemed to know where a poppy could be bought, although
Plaistow Library had a display of Remembrance Day-related books, along with the In Flanders Fields poem mounted on the wall.
A young man working at the library said he had wanted to buy one himself, but had not been able to find one locally, although his workplace was waiting for a delivery.
Trevor Bruns, a local stallholder and long-time East End resident, said: ‘I’ve been a whelk seller for 17 years and I’ve never been able to buy a poppy here. I would if I could.’
Some are keeping up the grand old tradition. Poppy seller Liam Adam said he was doing brisk business at his stall in the Westfield shopping centre in Stratford.
Liam, who has been volunteering for the Poppy Appeal for three years, said: ‘We’ve taken, I reckon, a few hundreds pounds this morning or maybe 60 poppies. One person gave £40, that’s a huge donation and they only got one poppy.’
Yet poppies were few and far between in the Whitechapel area of Tower Hamlets in east London where hardly anyone on the high street was wearing one.
Nobody was selling them at one of the local stations, although there was a foodbank collection and a man handing out English-language versions of the Quran.
The DLR tube line was adorned with poppies at its front and back, unlike any of its passengers
A close up of poppy wreath before the Premier League match at the Stadium of Light, Sunderland
A close up of a poppy corner flag in the ground ahead of the Sky Bet Championship match at Riverside Stadium, Middlesbrough
Workers at the town hall and the library recommended a large Sainsbury’s store just off the high street as a likely prime location for poppy sellers.
But a visit simply revealed two donation containers and two cardboard boxes of paper poppies, with no in-person presence to be seen.
Even in the major transport hub of Liverpool Street, which sits on the border of Tower Hamlets and the City of London, poppies were not common.
A snap taken from above of a crowd of hundreds looking up at the departures board revealed only five visible poppies sported on lapels.
This was despite the presence of six friendly, personable sellers, stationed across two desks at either end of the railway terminus.
Meanwhile, the Daily Mail struggled to find poppy sellers in Leicester.
Grandmother Margaret Wise, 72, who has lived in the city all her life told of her ‘shock’ and ‘disappointment’ there was hardly anywhere to buy one.
She said: ‘It is a sorry reflection of how times have changed. At one time you would see people walking around and proudly showing off a bright red poppy on their lapel, but I’ve not seen any now.’
The retired school dinner lady, shopping in the busy high street near the clock tower, added: ‘I would gladly have bought one, but I can’t see any poppy sellers anywhere. It’s important we remember our country’s traditional values whatever our religious and political beliefs or ethnicity.’
At the train station the concourse was devoid of any Royal British Legion poppy sellers.
An East Midlands Railway worker, pointing to an empty space outside the ticket office near the main entrance, said: ‘Last year we had a table set up for people selling poppies over there, but it’s not here this year.’
There was a sign encouraging people to support Poppy Day at Statford Station but few people passing by could be seen wearing them
He said: ‘I don’t know why but I presume there is no need for one… It’s a changing sign of the times. Maybe people in Leicester don’t want to wear poppies. You can’t force them to.’
A reporter walking around the city – which has a population of around 400,000 – saw nobody wearing one.
At the Gourmet Coffee Bar outside the station, a very small box still nearly full of poppies had been placed on one corner of the counter.
A worker called Cameron, 23, said some travellers had been buying poppies, but not ‘that many.’
He said: ‘I’ve sold some, maybe a few dozen, and customers have been putting a few pound coins in the box or fiver notes.’
Cameron, a former Scout who lives on the outskirts of Leicester, said he had no idea if sales were up or down on last year as he was not working there last November but he sensed the diverse city was ‘less supportive of British ways.’
Likewise, the Mail failed to find a single poppy seller in Bradford, West Yorkshire, and saw only a few people wearing them in the city.
Local residents said they only ever saw occasional sellers in The Broadway shopping centre, and on Saturdays in the city’s Darley St Market.
Shopper Evelyn Morris, 62, said: ‘There are quite a few on Saturday but that’s the only time you’ll see them.
There was a Royal British Legion stall in the Mall shopping centre in Blackburn, Lancashire, but the Daily Mail found few people donning poppies
‘There’s none in the week but at the weekend you’ll get collectors for the Royal British Legion or kids from the scouts and things like that.’
Poppy wearer Jim Broughton, 76, said: ‘It’s very sad but you hardly see any poppy sellers these days. In fact, it’s rare you see people wearing them. I haven’t seen any poppy sellers in the last few days.
‘I got mine from a volunteer selling in the shopping centre and he said it was very quiet. I think you get the odd person also selling them in supermarkets.’
There were no sellers in the city’s Centenary Square or railway stations or even near the war memorial.
The Bradford City War Memorial Gardens marks the sacrifice of Polish soldiers in the World War Two as well as the Bradford Pals during the World War One
It was a similar story in Blackburn, Lancashire, where the Daily Mail found few people wearing poppies, although there was a Royal British Legion stall in the Mall shopping centre.
The volunteer seller, who did not want to give his name, said: ‘It’s a lot quieter than previous years. A lot of people just come and give money and don’t take a poppy.
‘A lot of it is contactless, so it’s hard to tell how much people are spending. I think a lot of it is down to the footfall in the town centre. There are less people coming in as a lot of the big shops have closed down.
At the Gourmet Coffee Bar outside Leicester station, a very small box still nearly full of poppies had been placed on one corner of the counter but few people had purchased one
‘It’s sad – maybe poppies have gone out of fashion or people are worried about the waste.
But’s a shame as it’s such a good cause.’
Three people did come to the stall during the five minutes the Daily Mail was speaking to the volunteer.
Poppy wearer June Worthington, 58, said: ‘This is the only stall I have seen in the town centre. There used to be a lot more such as in the main shopping street or by the railway station.
‘Now you have to go out of your way to find them. I’ve had mine for years, so I just donate online or give money if I do see a stall.’
A spokesperson for the Royal British Legion said: ‘The Royal British Legion has distributed 30 million poppies for this year’s Poppy Appeal, as we do every year.
‘We have more collectors supporting the Appeal than last year, with over 54,000 people generously donating their time across the nation.
‘Last week’s London Poppy Day beat all previous records with £1.478 million raised in a single day in the capital, a 14% increase on last year.
‘We are grateful for every donation made and every poppy worn and encourage people to wear their poppies as a personal message of thanks to our Armed Forces community.’
