UPM Biofore Magazine 1-2018

TEXT Will Stone   PHOTOGRAPHY Eric Howard, James Cropper, The Poppy Factory

MEMORIAL PAPER POPPIES MADE OF UPM’s pulp are a common sight at war memorials but they are also worn on the left side of one’s jacket, as close to heart as possible.

Every year over 45 million red paper flowers are produced as a symbolic gesture of remembrance for fallen soldiers. We share the behind-the-scenes story of the iconic paper poppy.

JAMES CROPPER AND THE POPPY • James Cropper developed a colour fast paper which wouldn’t leech the bright red colour in the 1970s. • The mill also makes the green leaf paper in the Poppy design. • The Poppy paper is made throughout the year. It is delivered to The Poppy Factory where the millions of poppies are made. • James Cropper PLC employs over 550 people globally. • The great-great-great grandson of

Red flower of remembrance

the company’s founder and namesake is Mark Cropper, Chairman and custodian of the family business.

T

he common poppy, Papaver rhoeas, thrives in rich soil such as the grimly scorched earth found in First World War battlefields in Flanders, Belgium andmany parts of France. As a tribute to the fallen,

Appeal organised by the Royal British Legion to raise donations for veterans and the Armed Forces community. Nine million paper poppies were distributed in the first Poppy Appeal in 1921, raising money for veterans’ employment and housing. The flower is also immortalised in the famous poem In Flanders Fields by Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae , a Canadian physician who penned the following lines in 1915 after witnessing his friend die on the battlefield: “In Flanders fields the poppies blow, Between the crosses, row on row, That mark our place, and in the sky, The larks, still bravely singing, fly, Scarce heard amid the guns below.” A hundred years of collaboration Originally made from silk, today’s memorial poppy is made of paper, using both traditional andmodern-day techniques. Today, the poppy starts its life at the 173-year-old James Cropper paper mill, located in Burneside, on the edge of the British Lake District in northwest

“We recognise the value of the relationship and the quality which

remembrance poppies have been worn since 1921, the year the Royal British Legion was founded. The poppy is traditionally worn on the left side of one’s jacket, as close to the heart as possible. Red remembrance poppies are well recognised all over Europe but mainly worn in the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Poppies are also a common sight in war memorials in Central Europe, especially around 11 November, the “11th hour of the 11th day of the 11thmonth” when Great War hostilities ended in 1918. Remembrance Day is also known as Poppy Day. The red paper poppies are distributed by volunteers in the Poppy

One hundred years since the end of the First World War

we both achieve in our businesses. We have taken our fibre

management expertise, belief in innovation and focus on sustainability, to create new business alongside craftsman-led papermaking,” notes Phil Wild.

>>

42 | UPM BIOFORE BEYOND FOSSILS

1/2018 |  43