AS we approach this year's Armistice and Remembrance service the chatterati are again debating the relative merits and meanings of different colours of poppies. Having served for 22 years in the Army I thought I might share a soldier's viewpoint.
Wilfred Owen expressed his feelings in Dulce et decorum est, but Scottish soldiers share a different poem.
The Scottish poppy is anatomically correct with its four lobes. The poem focuses on each of those and attaches meaning to them. As Scottish soldiers contemplate and reflect many will ponder these words and their meaning:
The Scottish poppy has four lobes.
The first is for our fallen, they fought for us, we should remember them.
The second is for the fallen enemy, for they were soldiers too.
The third is for the civilian deaths, for they were needless and many.
The fourth is for those yet to fall, let them be few and far off.
Brian Kelly,
16 Iona Road, Dunfermline.
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