Why we wear poppies

On 11 November we will mark the ninety-eighth anniversary of the Armistice which ended the First World War. The guns on the Western Front finally fell silent at eleven o’clock on the eleventh day of the eleventh month of 1918 after four years of war which left millions of victims and devastated countries.

Each year at the beginning of November you could see many of us wearing poppies on our jackets. It is a powerful symbol with which we honour all fallen in conflict. As we hold remembrance services around the world we will be reminded of all who have given their lives for our freedom and all those at the battlefields around the globe.

In the short video below Lt Col Richard Parry, Defence Attaché for Albania, Kosovo and Macedonia explains what is the significance of the poppy, and the work of the Royal British Legion.

The British Embassy Skopje will hold Service of Remembrance on Sunday 13 November at the British Military Cemeteries in Skopje at 10.40 hrs. We will be joined by our partners from the Macedonian Ministry of Defence and the Army of the Republic of Macedonia, members of the British community and colleagues from diplomatic missions in Macedonia.

In honour of those who have lost their lives or been affected by the atrocities of war. Lest we forget.