Remembrance Day: Scotland and England's poppies may differ but they recall the same suffering and loss in Flanders – Angus Robertson

Tomorrow at 11am, on the eleventh day of the eleventh month, we remember the millions who died or were injured in past and recent conflicts.
Former Scots Guard Brian Ward, from Cumbernauld, with his two sons Daniel, two (left) and Jack, four, place crosses in the Edinburgh Garden of Remembrance on 11 November last year (Picture: Jane Barlow/PA Wire)Former Scots Guard Brian Ward, from Cumbernauld, with his two sons Daniel, two (left) and Jack, four, place crosses in the Edinburgh Garden of Remembrance on 11 November last year (Picture: Jane Barlow/PA Wire)
Former Scots Guard Brian Ward, from Cumbernauld, with his two sons Daniel, two (left) and Jack, four, place crosses in the Edinburgh Garden of Remembrance on 11 November last year (Picture: Jane Barlow/PA Wire)

On Sunday, national commemorations were held at the National War Memorial in Edinburgh Castle where, at the highest point on the castle rock, a casket holds the roll of honour with the names of 147,000 Scots from the Great War and another 50,000 names that were added to the rolls of honour after World War Two. More have been added since in the monument hall in Crown Square.

Individual tributes have been laid at the Garden of Remembrance by the Scott Monument on Princes Street. Small crosses and symbols for other religions, each bearing a poppy are rowed by surname, regiment and armed service, many with messages remembering lost loved ones.

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You still have time to support this year’s fundraising efforts for the Scottish Poppy appeal, which does so much good work for service personnel and their families.

Preparations are already underway to mark an important anniversary next year, when we mark the centenary of the first cloth poppies sold in Britain.

Since then, we have seen the development of fundraising poppy campaigns across the Commonwealth and Ireland.

Last weekend Micheál Martin became the first Fianna Fáil Taoiseach to take part in a Remembrance Day event and wore a shamrock poppy.

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While poppy designs differ slightly: in Scotland with four petals, England and Wales with two petals and a leaf, they all recall the poppies of Flanders fields and all who died. Lest we forget.

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