As British troops leave Afghanistan and end their official involvement in the conflict, plans for remembrance ceremonies and poppy appeals are being finalised across the country.
Some say the poppy should be worn from November 1, others think it should be displayed as soon as the Poppy Appeal is launched, which was on October 24 with a vigil at the Cenotaph in London.
The history of the Poppy Appeal dates back to WWI and is used today to remembers those who died during that, and subsequent conflicts.
1. Moina Michael, who was working in the YMCA Overseas War Secretaries' headquarters in New York, was the first person to wear a poppy after reading McCrae's poem, and was so moved that she wore one in remembrance just two days before the Armistice was signed on November 11, 1918.
2. The significance of the flower comes from a poem In Flanders Field, by Canadian doctor, Colonel John McCrae.
3. He wrote it as he looked out over a battle field in Ypres, Belgium, in 1915 where poppies were the first thing that begun to grow in the churned up soil after the fighting.
4. The first ever Poppy Appeal was held on November 11, 1921 after the French War Secretary, Madame Guerin, came up with the idea of selling poppies to raise money to help ex-serviceman injured in WWI.
5. Field Marshall Douglas Haig, a senior commander during WWI and a founder of the Royal British Legion, liked the idea and the newly-established group began selling poppies.
