In Defence of the White Poppy

Cowardly? 

Not at all.

Every November, the same accusation resurfaces: that wearing a white poppy is disrespectful, unpatriotic, even cowardly. The history says otherwise.

Who wears it?

Many veterans wear the white poppy, including people who lived through the horrors of the front line and came to see war as futile. Conscientious objectors who refused to fight often showed enormous courage. Some served with the Friends' Ambulance Unit or the medical corps, rescuing the wounded under shellfire without carrying a weapon. Others took on bomb disposal and stretcher-bearing, among the most dangerous work of the wars.

The white poppy isn't about dishonouring soldiers. It stands for remembering all victims of war, military and civilian, and for a commitment to peace.

Where did it come from?

The white poppy didn't start as a rival to the red one. It was first produced in 1933 by the Women's Co-operative Guild, whose members were largely women who had lost husbands, sons, brothers and friends in the First World War. They wanted to keep alive the "never again" spirit of 1918.

The Guild first asked the British Legion to produce white poppies, with the proceeds going into the Legion's own poppy funds. The Legion refused, so the Guild had them made elsewhere. The Guild said it was anxious that nothing be done to harm help for disabled soldiers. Years earlier, in 1926, the No More War Movement had suggested printing "No More War" on the red poppy itself, and that idea also went nowhere. The offer to work together was there from the start.

The Peace Pledge Union, founded in 1934, began distributing white poppies in 1936 and still does. Its early membership included many First World War veterans who had seen the trenches firsthand. Wearing the white poppy carried a cost, and in the 1930s some women lost their jobs for it.

On the word "yellow"

If anyone uses it to mock conscientious objectors, they are recycling the insults thrown at them a century ago. Facing down a hostile society, tribunals and prison sentences, or doing dangerous frontline work without a weapon, takes a great deal of backbone.

Why this matters

Calling a white poppy "cowardly" usually conflates pacifism with apathy or disrespect. But the people who hate war most are often the ones who have seen it. Many wear a red poppy as well, to remember veterans of all wars, and the two symbols are not in conflict.

Sources:

Peace Pledge Union, White poppies: frequently asked questions. It covers the Guild's request to the British Legion, the refusal, and Eleanor Barton's statement about disabled soldiers.

The white poppy, 1933. It reprints 1933 newspaper reports on the Guild's plans, including the request to the Legion to supply white poppies.

Co-operative Heritage Trust, The Co-op Movement and the White Poppy. It covers the 1926 No More War Movement proposal, the Guild's adoption of the white poppy in 1933, and the Guild's insistence that it had no quarrel with the red poppy.

Peace Pledge Union, Are white poppies a recent invention?. It covers the 1933 origin and Barton's "never again" appeal.

Wikipedia, White poppy. It covers the 1926 proposal, the 1936 PPU distribution, and women losing jobs for wearing white poppies.