This blog post was published under the 2010 to 2015 Conservative and Liberal Democrat coalition government

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Leigh Turner

Ambassador to Austria and UK Permanent Representative to the United Nations and other International Organisations in Vienna

Part of UK in Ukraine

9th November 2011

Why I wear a poppy

Once again, as November begins and temperatures dip towards freezing in Kyiv, Ukrainian friends and contacts are asking why I am wearing a small, red flower on my jacket lapel.  I can do no better than refer to the blog I published this time last year, “Why I wear a poppy“.

As in previous years in Kyiv, collection tins and boxes of poppies have been placed in the British Embassy at Desyatynna and the offices of the British Council in Podil, as well as in The Golden Gate, Lucky Pub and O’Brien’s.  Last year, generous support meant that over £330 was raised in Kyiv.  I hope that we can at least match that in 2011.

A link to photographs of the 2010 Remembrance Day ceremony in Kyiv is here.

Post-script: for Remembrance Sunday, someone has brought to my attention a link to the Choir of Westminster Abbey singing the words of the “Ode of Remembrance“:

“They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.”

About Leigh Turner

I hope you find this blog interesting and, where appropriate, entertaining. My role in Vienna covers the relationship between Austria and the UK as well as the diverse work of…

I hope you find this blog interesting and, where appropriate, entertaining. My role in Vienna covers the relationship between Austria and the UK as well as the diverse work of the UN and other organisations; stories here will reflect that.

About me: I arrived in Vienna in August 2016 for my second posting in this wonderful city, having first served here in the mid-1980s. My previous job was as HM Consul-General and Director-General for Trade and Investment for Turkey, Central Asia and South Caucasus based in Istanbul.

Further back: I grew up in Nigeria, Exeter, Lesotho, Swaziland and Manchester before attending Cambridge University 1976-79. I worked in several government departments before joining the Foreign Office in 1983.

Keen to go to Africa and South America, I’ve had postings in Vienna (twice), Moscow, Bonn, Berlin, Kyiv and Istanbul, plus jobs in London ranging from the EU Budget to the British Overseas Territories.

2002-6 I was lucky enough to spend four years in Berlin running the house, looking after the children (born 1992 and 1994) and doing some writing and journalism.

To return to Vienna as ambassador is a privilege and a pleasure. I hope this blog reflects that.

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