THE QUEEN WILL HOST A RECEPTION TO MARK THE 100TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE POPPY FACTORY AT CLARENCE HOUSE
Thursday 15th February 2024
Her Majesty The Queen will host a celebration of the centenary of the founding of the Poppy Factory in the aftermath of the First World War. The reception also marks 100 years since the charity began the move to its historic home in Richmond-upon-Thames.
During the reception, Her Majesty will meet the factory’s employees and long-standing friends and partners, as well as veterans and family members who have overcome barriers and seen their lives changed by civilian employment with help from the Poppy Factory. The Queen will view a small exhibition of poppies and wreaths that show the evolution of the poppy as a symbol of Remembrance and the factory’s role in the Remembrance tradition.
Her Majesty, accompanied by the Poppy Factory’s President, Surgeon Rear Admiral Lionel Jarvis, and Chief Executive, Amanda Shepard, will meet the Poppy Factory’s Production Manager, Mark Young who, with the help of a small exhibition, will explain the evolution of the poppy as a symbol of Remembrance and the factory’s role in making poppies and wreaths for the Royal British Legion and the Royal Household. The exhibition includes newly acquired objects for the factory’s visitor centre in Richmond. The Queen will then go on to meet two of the Poppy Factory’s longest-serving employees, both of whom are deaf. Her Majesty will be accompanied by a British Sign Language interpreter.
The Queen will also meet a veteran who has recently moved into work with the help of the charity’s Veterans Employment Service and a family member who was one of the first to be supported by the charity through its new Families Employment Service, set up in 2023. The Queen will then cut a birthday cake before being presented with a small gift of poppies shaped in the form of a ‘10’ to mark the Queen’s association with the charity. (Her Majesty The Queen has supported the Poppy Factory since 2013.)
