Remembrance Day 2020- November 11 at 11am
A giant poppy wall hanging is taking pride of place Castle Hill RSL this week to mark Remembrance Day 2020.
The wall hanging features over 500 poppies including purple poppies for the animals who have served in war, white poppies for nurses and peace and yellow to represent the injured soldiers who are part of the Invictus games.
During the First World War, red poppies were among the first plants to spring up in the devastated battlefields of northern France and Belgium. In soldiers’ folklore, the vivid red of the poppy came from the blood of their comrades soaking the ground. The sight of poppies on the battlefield at Ypres in 1915 moved Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae to write the poem In Flanders fields.
It has been the symbol of Remembrance Day 2020 across the world.
Cheryl Hill, Castle Hill RSL sub-branch Vice-President (welfare) said it had taken about 200 hours to put the wall hanging together with 10 people making the poppies.
“It took 100 hours just to sew the poppies on,” she said. One of the first to view the wall hanging was Pauline James the state co-ordinator RSL auxiliaries who was at Castle Hill RSL to officially re-open the auxiliary club at Castle Hill which closed in 1993.
There are now 102 RSL auxiliary clubs in NSW. The first was set up 95 years ago. Cheryl Hill said it had been a mission of hers to reopen the Castle Hill RSL Auxiliary Club which was open to all members of the public. The auxiliary is the fundraising arm to the RSL sub-branch.
She said: “I am very excited it is reopening. At the moment we have 20 ladies and one male who are members.
“There are a lot of men married to ex servicewoman who can’t join a sub branch but they can join the auxiliary.”
The group will be meeting once a month. For details email [email protected]
