The Poppy Appeal for 2019 has been launched

The Royal British Legion has launched its annual Poppy Appeal. It is the organisation's biggest fundraising campaign held every year in November, the period of Remembrance.

It is a chance to honour the invaluable contributions being made by the Armed Forces community. This year though, the symbol that has long represented remembrance of the armed forces and those who have fallen in conflict, will also stand for civilian victims, not just of war, but terrorism too.

Part of the Legion's success comes from the volunteers who help with its campaigns. There are more than 100,000 of them who fundraise for the charity each year.

In 2018 the Poppy Appeal raised more than £50 million pounds from the general public. The donations go towards helping to support serving and ex-serving members of the Armed Forces community and their families.

In the 2018 campaign, 40,000 people collected donations

The red poppy originally became a symbol of Remembrance during the First World War. Its use was inspired by the poem 'In Flanders Fields' written in 1915 by Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae after the lost a friend in Ypres in Belgium.

Much of the landscape in the countryside of Western Europe where the fighting of WWI was taking place became muddy and bleak. However, thousands and thousands of bright red Flanders poppies grew amid much of the destruction.

  • Watch our report from Ashna Hurynag

The Royal British Legion has more information about the adoption of the red poppy as a symbol of Remembrance, as well as alist of things you might not know about the poppy including:

  • The poppy is a symbol of Remembrance and hope for a peaceful future

  • Wearing a poppy is a personal choice

  • There is no 'correct' way to wear a poppy

  • The poppy is red because that's the natural colour of the poppy flower

  • The red poppy appeal directly supports the Armed Forces community

  • Poppies are sold in every community across the UK

  • A poem inspired the use of the poppy as a symbol of Remembrance

  • Poppies weren't always sold with leaves

  • The red poppies used in the appeal are recyclable