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Uncover the rich history of Elmbridge with our latest online exhibitions
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Explore the latest news and find out what's on this month
Explore our learning offer for schools, families and community groups
Uncover the rich history of Elmbridge with our latest online exhibitions
Want to discover more about your local area?
Why not visit, and be fascinated by the amazing historic items on display?
Plan your visit hereIn this piece, Isaac has created a large red remembrance poppy backed by a collage of varied photographs from the First World War. Some of these depict troops from across the world, others are images showing the celebrations on Armistice Day itself in 1918. The collage demonstrates many of the events and people we commemorate by wearing a Poppy on Remembrance Day.
These are the organisations which would eventually merge to form the British Legion.
Formed in Blackburn in 1917, just before the end of the war, this group was concerned with representing working men who had been discharged from service during the war. They put forward political candidates for the 1918 election, and after the war’s end became more conservative, aligning closely with the Comrades of the Great War group.
This group also formed in 1917, and aimed to be an advocate for the rights of both male and female service personnel. It was staunchly conservative in outlook, far more so than the aforementioned NADSS, and it was led for many years by Conservative Party MP and secretary of the Anti-Socialist Union Wilfrid Ashley.
Founded in 1920, the Officers’ Association is still an active charity today. It was originally started with the aim of supporting ex-officers and their dependents, by helping them through the process of finding employment and financial stability after their service.
This group was founded in London in January 1917. It was initially started by veterans who were opposed to the government Act which allowed invalided soldiers to return to the army to fight in the First World War. They had a number of branches across the country, most of which were politically liberal or left-leaning. The group jointly sponsored many candidates with the NADSS in the 1918 election, opposing the right-wing Comrades of the Great War organisation.
It was the NFDDSS which invited the other three veterans organisations to a meeting in 1921 to establish the British Legion.
Passage from 'Mrs Dalloway' by Virginia Woolf, 1925, in which Lucrezia struggles to understand her husband Septimus' PTSD, having been traumatised by fighting in the war.
A 1926 British Legion membership card. This belonged to prominent local British Legion member Mrs. S Howard from Walton, who raised much money for the cause over the years.
British Legion Women's Section Fixtures Booklet for the Walton and District Branch, 1937. This formerly belonged to Mrs S. Howard.
Mrs S. Howard's slip for an Annual Subscription to the British Legion Women's Section Walton Branch, for 1926.
The front of photographic shop Bedwell & Vass in Church Street, Weybridge, showing a lady standing outside the shop with a collecting tin for the British Legion's Remembrance Day.
A blank application form for the British Legion Women's Section's Walton Branch, c.1920s-30s. The rules of membership are included on the page's reverse.
Receipt for ten shillings and sixpence. Receipted to Mrs. Howard for her British Legion subscription on 11th March 1936. At this point, Mrs Howard had been a Legion member for over 10 years. Many of the historic local RBL items in our archives were donated from her own collection.
British Legion Certificate for Mr. Henry Hibbert, as a member of The Claygate Branch, January 1924. Mr Hibbert had previously been a member of the Comrades of the Great War society in the years before the Legion was formed.
Group photograph of Hersham Football Club raising money for the British Legion Poppy Appeal, 1st November 1978.
Mrs S. Howard from Walton was a longstanding member and supporter of the Royal British Legion. Indeed, the vast majority of Elmbridge Museum’s historic local Legion items come from Mrs Howard’s own personal collection, built up over her years of involvement with the Walton branch. Included amongst these items are subscription cards, booklets, letters and receipts from the ‘Women’s Section.’ Like the main British Legion, this branch had been formed in 1921, and its main focus was in supporting the widows, families, and dependents of service personnel.
Mrs Howard consistently raised the profile of the local British Legion here in Elmbridge, and as early as 1926 received a letter from the President Haig himself, thanking her for helping to sell Remembrance Day poppies. Her charitable work continued for over a decade, receiving a letter of thanks from the Secretary of the Walton branch for donating a table in 1935, and another thank-you letter in December 1937 for donating a large amount of clothing to the British Legion fund.
Booklet of Bye-Laws for the British Legion Women’s Section, 1926.
Application form with rules for the British Legion Women’s Section’s Walton branch.
Handbook for the British Legion Women’s Section
This creative Remembrance poppy summarises the British Legion’s purpose in observing a Remembrance Day each year, bringing home the huge scale of the First World War and the numbers affected by it.
‘World War 1:
70 million soldiers, 20 million deaths, 32 countries, 1 remembrance day! 11.11’
Embroidered Christmas card with a poppy on the front. Inside is a card with ‘Glorieux Souvenir 1914-15’ and ‘I’m thinking of you’ printed on it. This was sent from a soldier during the Great War, and demonstrates the prevalence of the Poppy in imagery at the time.
Anna Guerin, a former French schoolteacher, had been promoting poppies in the USA since 1920 to fundraise for war widows. In 1921 she came to Britain, and persuaded the newly formed British Legion to adopt the poppy as a symbol of remembrance for fundraising purposes, in return for organising their distribution with networks of women’s groups. She also funded the manufacture of poppies in France for the ‘Poppy Day’, with 8 million simple red fabric poppies being produced by women and children in the devastated areas of France.
The poppies sold out immediately and raised a huge £106 (roughly £5,322 in today’s money). The funds were used within the charity to help veterans with employment and housing, and the Legion has been associated with the Poppy ever since. Now, 40 million poppies are distributed each year by around 40,000 RBL volunteers.
By 1922, the poppy was not only raising money for suffering service personnel, but its very production was providing many of them with valuable work. Ex-servicemen worked at the Poppy Factory in Richmond to produce remembrance items, with the aim of aiding their own recovery and return to employment.