The annual launch of the UK’s Royal British Legion poppy appeal has been marked in Brussels with a moving tribute to the war dead, coming just ahead of Remembrance Day in November in honour of Britain’s military veterans.
The 2025 poppy appeal organisers seek to help over thousands of people from the Royal Navy, Army and the Royal Air Force, as well as veterans and their families with financial and emotional support.
A key event in Belgium in what is a year-long commemoration of the war dead comes on 9th November – Remembrance Sunday – with a special ceremony at the Commonwealth War Graves Commission Cemetery at Heverlee, near Leuven, a resting place for over 1,000 casualties from Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Poland, South Africa, the UK and USA.
The ceremony will start at 10.45am and lasts about 45 minutes.
Launching this year’s poppy appeal in Belgium on Thursday 23rd October, Anne Sherriff, the British Ambassador to Belgium, paid tribute to the war dead.
She told a specially invited audience she was “absolutely honoured” to take part in the launch of the appeal which aims to raise much needed funds for the British Legion.
The diplomat said the appeal was a “symbol of resilience, remembrance and recognition” of those who has “sacrificed their lives” for future generations. “We must never forget,” she said.
She added, “Here in Belgium there were so many good young men who laid down their lives for freedom” and the British Legion served to ensure that both these and their surviving families “are not overlooked.”
The annual fund raising appeal was a reminder also, she noted, that freedom “is very much worth defending.”
Her words were echoed by Group Captain John Dickson who, also speaking at the launch at the British ambassador’s residence, described the British Legion’s work as an “amazing cause.”
He signalled out two Chelsea Pensioners, Norman Bareham and Tommy Fox, who had travelled from the UK specially for the occasion. Chelsea pensioners are retired soldiers from the British army who live at the Royal Hospital Chelsea in London.
Norman, who, like Tommy, was wearing his distinctive scarlet and blue uniform, told this site that the ceremony was a “touching” reminder of why the British Legion was started in the first place, adding, “it is all about remembering not just the dead from two world wars but right up to the present day.”
Participants were reminded that the annual appeal is aimed not just at those from the two world wars but the many conflicts in the past, such as the Gulf War and Falklands, and those still going on today.
Several others attending the event told this website what the event – and remembering the war dead – meant to them.
They included Kathleen Johnson, a UK-Belgian national, whose father Eric Johnson first came to Belgium soon after WW2 whereupon he joined the Royal British Legion.
He became a standard bearer for the charity and its Brussels branch for the next 50 years until his death, aged 96, in 2021.
Kathleen said, “This appeal is so important still because it gives us a chance to remember all soldiers, many of them very young, who gave their lives for freedom.”
Also present was Jean-Pierre Pede who is vice chair of the Brussels branch of the Royal British Legion and whose father-in-law was a war veteran and was one of the first to liberate Brussels after WW2.
He said, “The appeal is a special period of the calendar each year, lasting until the end of November, when we can help raise funds for veterans’ families and loved ones.”
Also attending the event was Rev. Canon John Wilkinson, chaplain of the Brussels branch of the British Legion, who told this site that funds raised from the appeal “help make life possible” for veterans’ families.
British veterans are approaching the charity every day seeking help, highlighting the importance of raising vital funds during the Poppy Appeal.Although the UK government does provide some support to members of the military and veterans,surveys show that military charities want the government to do more to support those fighting for the UK.
The UK chancellor has said that a new £33 million funding package would be allocated to support veterans over the next three years, but charities like the Royal British Legion fill a crucial gap in providing additional support.
Most of the funds raised in Belgium will go to the British Legion in the UK, he said, largely because there were, today, very few living veterans in Belgium.
The focus in Belgium, he added, was on the several commemorative events that take place during the year to honour the war dead, including next month’s even in Heverlee.
Similar events have already been held in Leuven and Hotton.
Centrepiece of the event was a moving performance, called “Lest We Forget”, by a group of Belgian-based artists and musicians.
They included Belfast-born Graham Andrews, a professional writer, who served in the army in the 1960s and in Yemen. He told this site, “People forget what an awful conflict that was so this is a chance to remember.”
Another performer was Oliver Gray, a musician, singer and song writer well known on the Belgian music scene,who told this site the event was “particularly poignant” for him as his great uncle had been an army officer in Ypres in WW1.
Oliver, who has lived in Belgium since the 1970s, said, “It important to understand what war means and how we can stop them happening in the first place. If we can use the power of music and art to achieve this then the world would be a better place.”
British-born journalist Paul Meller, a resident of Brussels for over 30 years, said he too felt “very proud to be part of this occasion and to honour, in our small way, those who fought for Britain and others.” Other representatives at the ceremony included people from the Scout movement in Belgium.
A section from the famous WW1 poem, “The Soldier”, which includes the lines, “If I should die, think only this of me; that there’s some corner of a foreign field that is for ever England”, was read out and the audience was also reminded of the famous Christmas Eve truce in WW1 when soldiers from both sides of the war downed their weapons, played a football match together and even exchanged souvenirs.
Guests were reminded that WW1 alone claimed over 9m victims and was one of the deadliest conflicts ever, with a generation of young lives being lost on both sides of the conflict.
The event concluded with a touching rendition of “Abide with Me” sung by, among other, Mrs Glen Aston, of the Military Wives Choir of Belgium.
She said, “I am proud to be involved in the whole ceremony and this appeal launch. It is for a great cause.”
In the run up to Remembrance Day on 11th November, poppies will be on sale throughout the UK and also in Belgium.
Images: British Embassy, Brussels.
