Purple poppies to remember animals that fell in conflict

Jeanne Gathercole and Linda Laine were joined by members of the St Martin’s WI and friends when they made hundreds of purple poppies.

They will be making more in future years as they hope to continue to raise awareness of the animals that gave their lives to help their country during war. They have asked that people wear their purple poppy alongside their red one.

‘Purple poppies are quite well known in other parts of the world and in the UK there is an official purple poppy day,’ said Mrs Laine.

‘We wanted people to wear them alongside the red poppies because animals and humans were alongside each other in war and we would not want to detract from the importance of Remembrance Day in any way.’

Sam Reoch, who helped knit some of the poppies, said: ‘Animals had no choice, they had no say in what they did so it’s important we pay respect to them too.

‘We love to see pictures of animals wearing the purple poppies and our representative Millie [the dog] will lay a purple wreath in the afternoon after the Royal British Legion service in the morning on Remembrance Day,’ she added.

Joey the donkey was one of Guernsey’s most famous animals that fell in conflict.

He wore the colours of the Royal Guernsey Light Infantry and was one of more than 16 million animals who were part of the First World War.

Horses, mules, donkeys, camels, and even elephants were used for transport, to carry ammunition, food and medical supplies to the front line.

A total of 200,000 carrier pigeons were used as messengers, while 500,000 cats were used to kill rats and mice on ships and in trenches.

There were 20,000 dogs trained to find wounded and dying soldiers, hunt rats, deliver messages, lay telegraph wires, and dig out bomb victims.

Even glow worms were used to provide a glimmer of light to help the soldiers read in the trenches and dolphins were used for mine detection.