3 Squadron POEMS

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“POPPIES”


By LtCol  John Francis WILLCOCKS  OBE MBE MiD.
(Born 1918 - died 2007.  Authored this poem in 2004.)

Why are they selling poppies, Mother?
Selling poppies in town today. 

The poppy, my child, is a flower of love.  
     For the men who marched away.

Why did they choose a poppy, Mother?
Why not a beautiful rose? 

Because my child, men fought and died  
In the fields where the poppy grows.

But why is the poppy red, Mother?
Why is it so red?

Red is the colour of blood, my child.  
The blood that our soldiers shed.

The heart of the poppy is black, Mother.
Why does it have to be black? 

Black is the symbol of grief, my child,
For the men who never came back.

But why, Mother dear, are you crying so?
Your tears are like winter rain.

My tears are my fears for you my child.
For the world is forgetting again.
This poem is today much-repeated in Australia as the work of an "anonymous" author, but under an incorrect title ("The Inquisitive Mind of a Child") and with some words altered.  But in fact the author, LtCol John Francis Willcocks OBE MBE MiD, who wrote the poem in 2004, three years before he died, did not intend to be anonymous.

Willcocks was born in 1918 and his father (an Artillery Major, Chevalier of the French Légion d'Honneur) suffered a gas injury in WW1 and died in 1919.  So Willcocks would have himself been a small boy asking questions about Remembrance Poppies to his widowed mother...

The young Willcocks followed in his father's footsteps, growing up to become an Artillery officer in WW2.  He was Mentioned in Despatches.  He retired from his Army career in 1962 and went on to become a senior Civil Servant.  He also performed charitable volunteer work. 
[Willcocks' Obituary is on page 61 of this Radley College listing.]

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