HOME GUARD ASSOCIATION
Blacked Out Britain are the organisers and driving force behind the Home Guard Association (HGA). Formed in 2002, it soon became popular with surviving veterans as a dedicated association that would champion their role during the Second World War. It took some time for the association to be recognised by the Royal British Legion, but after much perseverance, official recognition was granted. Our veterans were able to take part in the annual Service of Remembrance in Whitehall and lay a wreath at the Cenotaph to pay tribute to their fallen comrades.
In recent years, as our active veterans passed away or were no longer able to manage the service and march at the Cenotaph, we have decided to concentrate our efforts at the Field of Remembrance which is opened each year on the Thursday before Remembrance Sunday. If you find yourself in London around the time of Remembrance Sunday then do stop by and plant a cross to remember a member of the Home Guard and visit the number of other plots that are dedicated to other Home Front Services.
ORIGINS OF THE FIELD OF REMEMBRANCE
When Major George Howson MC set out to establish an enterprise that employed disabled veterans from the First World War, he had modest expectations.
In May 1922, after receiving £2,000 from the British Legion to open a poppy-making factory, Howson wrote to his parents: “If the experiment is successful, it will be the start of an industry to employ 150 men. I do not think it can be a great success, but it is worth trying.”
Howson’s modesty was misplaced. The Poppy Factory as a charitable enterprise was an immediate success. By 1931 the factory was making nearly 30 million poppies a year and a community of 320 men, women and children lived on its estate in Richmond-Upon-Thames.
In 1928, the charity’s founder, Major Howson MC, suggested using the grounds of Westminster Abbey as a place where anyone could plant a poppy in memory of a loved one.
In that first year over 30,000 poppies were planted in the grass, to be replaced in later years by the crosses and other tributes. Another Remembrance tradition had been established.
Alongside its hand-crafted production work, The Poppy Factory continues to organise and lay out the Field of Remembrance where in recent years over 70,000 tributes have been laid out according to regiments, units and associations.
