Remembrance Poppies to Paddington

A true travel tale of a different kind for Armistice Day

Wreath with the words “In everlasting remembrance” signed Camilla R — Credit: Andy Read

Introduction

A new initiative, that started six years ago during the pandemic, has taken off with more publicity this year as Queen Camilla joined the travels. It’s about bringing wreaths made of artificial poppies on the Great Western Railway network from the south-west and west of the UK to Paddington Station in London for Armistice Day, 11/11.

It’s such a new initiative, I hadn’t heard of it before this year. It was only when I saw our news broadcast about Queen Camilla on Platform 1 of Paddington Station laying her wreath at the base of the Great Western Railway War Memorial that I found out about this.

The wreath has since been repositioned at the feet of the soldier of that war memorial. We went to see it the next day, and that’s what you see in the main picture. The words she wrote say:

In everlasting remembrance

Camilla R

Camilla R is short for Camilla Regina, Latin for Queen Camilla. Queen Elizabeth II used to sign her name Elizabeth R but this was the first time I’d ever seen Queen Camilla’s signature.

Commemoration

Although this day is Armistice Day (the day World War I ended), this year is also the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II.

At the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month a service was held with two minutes of silence to remember the end of the Great War (World War I) at Paddington Station, just like in many places up and down the country. This is how we pay our respects to our Armed Forces community, past and present.

Queen Camilla herself arrived from Chippenham via a special Great Western Railway (GWR) train to Paddington Station. The train featured the names of all 2,545 men, who worked for GWR and died during World War I.

Chippenham itself is 86 miles (138 km) from London, 13 miles (21 km) north-east of Bath.

The train also commemorated the role of the railway in conflicts over the past 200 years — from its first military use 170 years ago in the Crimean War to Sir Nicholas to Winton’s Kindertransport in 1939 and even the support given to veterans and reservists working in on the railways today.

Wreaths

A total of ten trains came into Paddington Station with their poppy wreaths from all around the west of the UK. One source claims almost 400 wreaths were laid, while another source gave a number half that. Looking at the picture, I think the number is closer to around 200.

But that’s still a lot of poppies travelling on the trains!

I’ve picked out a few representative wreaths on display at Paddington from the various places they’d travelled. There were wreaths from as far away as Penzance, on the southern tip of Cornwall in the south-west of England and as far west as Wales.

Below is the wreath from the Town Mayor of Penzance:

A wreath from Penzance, Cornwall— Credit: Author

And one from an MP in Caerfyrddin, South Wales, with a message in Welsh saying:

Mewn anghof ni chant fod

In English that’s ‘Lest we forget’, meaning ‘it should not be forgotten’.

Credit: Author

It’s a phrase that originates from a Rudyard Kipling poem written in 1897. Today, we use the phrase as part of how we honour the sacrifices made by those, who lost their lives in war.

‘Lest we forget’ is a phrase used in both the UK and Australia.

Various Members of Parliament provided wreaths to commemorate the fallen too. Here’s one from Sadik Al-Hassan MP in North Somerset:

A wreath by an MP — Credit: Author

This year is also the 200th anniversary of rail travel, so a poppy wreath was laid by Railway 200 to commemorate both:

Credit: Andy Read

Even a local primary school created a wreath to add to the many sent on the trains to Paddington:

Credit: Andy Read

People and organisations seem to have really got on board with this Poppies to Paddington initiative.

War memorial

War Memorial at Paddington Station — Credit: Author

Above is how the war memorial was decked out with all those wreaths. On either side are what the newsreader described as ‘poppy waterfalls’. They look more like poppy curtains (drapes) to me, but certainly eye-catching. There was a total of 22,442 cascading poppy petals used to create this.

At the base are two racks of wooden Remembrance crosses, which have a red poppy on each cross.

The wreaths themselves are displayed beyond what I could capture on a wide shot. Here’s a view along the platform:

Platform 1 at Paddington train station — Credit: Andy Read

Animals remembered

The animals who served in war are remembered with purple poppies. Below is one representing horses, dogs and birds:

Credit: Andy Read

In the central layout under the war memorial there were even a few wreaths made from knitted or crocheted poppies, two in red and one in purple. Can you find them?

A variety of wreaths — Credit: Andy Read

In fact, the red wreath at the top right has a couple of purple poppies in amongst them.

Finally…

The longest distance these poppies travelled was from Penzance to Paddington, which is 253 miles (407 km). They were brought up on the night riviera sleeper, the first of the ten trains to leave for London as part of this initiative.

Queen Camilla’s train had the shelves above the seats full of poppy wreaths and the tables covered in poppy wreaths, no doubt like all the other trains.

It must have been quite a sight for those on the trains, especially if they weren’t part of the intended passenger list for the ceremony at Paddington!

Thank you for reading

People, who’ve asked to be tagged: Aidan McCarthy Lu Skerdoo

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