Yellow poppies of Flanders: Miss Marjorie Jean Barber

Two Yellow Haig's Fund Flander's Poppies with their stems entwined. The poppies have wire stems wrapped in green paper, and a black plastic button in the centre of each flower with 'HAIG'S FUND' in raised lettering, and black fringed 'stamens' surrounding the buttons. One poppy is missing about half of its petals. Some loose pieces of shattered fabric are present. A paper label is attached to one poppy that reads 'EARL HAIG'S APPEAL For Ex-Service Men of all Ranks and their Dependents'.

Miss Marjorie Jean Barber was in Paris for Armistice Day 1936 with her mother Jane as part of a long overseas trip. She purchased these Haig's Fund poppies while there. These poppies were unusual because they were not the traditional red of the rememberance poppies.

They were manufactured for the French market at the British Legion Poppy Factory, alongside red poppies made for the British market. There were concerns that people who wore red poppies in France may be mistaken for Communists, so yellow poppies were produced instead.

Given the red poppy's known association with rememberance, the French did not think that was a credible reason. Many people in France gave money for the charity but did not wear the yellow poppy.

On Armistice Day Miss Barber took a bus to the Place L'Etoile (Place Charles de Gaulle) from their accomodation and found a position at a fence overlooking the proceedings. She noted in her diary that it was pouring with rain from 10.30. It was a cold day and that Armistice Day was one of the few public holidays in France and that churches, shops and museums were closed, but the theatres and cinemas were open.

Miss Barber was an only child, but she had several cousins who served in the First World War. Three on her mother's side survived the war, but the three on her father's side all died. They were: 863 Private William Tidd, killed in action at Gallipoli on 6 June 1915; 1983 Corporal Frederick Oates killed in action at Flers on 6 November 1916; and 5893 Private George Tidd, killed in action at Bullecourt on 3 May 1917. The Tidds grew up on a neighbouring farm to the Barber's and they were close friends, as well as cousins.