An Academy-award-winning actor has backed the white poppy movement, prompting fury from one veteran. This year, Sir Mark Rylance, 65, joined the Peace Pledge Union’s (PPU) campaign which has been running since the mid 1930s and promotes pacificism.
According to the website for the organisation, which distributes white poppies, the symbol is worn in remembrance of “all those killed in war, all those wounded in body or mind, the millions who have been made sick or homeless by war and the families and communities torn apart”. “We also remember those killed or imprisoned for refusing to fight and for resisting war,” as well as military personnel, the non-profit organisation says.
It differs from the red poppies handed out by The Royal British Legion which the PPU notes has traditionally said are to remember only British armed forces and their allies.
Mr Rylance, who starred in Christopher Nolan’s Dunkirk won an Oscar for his performance in the Steven Spielberg thriller Bridge of Spies (2015) said Rememberance Sunday, which takes place on Sunday, November 9, should “refocus our every effort to avert war”.
Sir Mark said: “I have always deeply admired and taken part in the white poppy remembrance of both civilian and military casualties of war. Civilians now far outnumber the tragic military casualties.
However, he stressed: “I do not understand the white poppy to be in any way an opposition to the red poppy worn in remembrance of military casualties. Unfortunately wars are fought with and against civilians today and I consider it an offence not to remember their suffering.”
“Remembrance Day should be a day to remember and grieve the great losses caused by war, but it should also be a day to refocus our every effort to avert war with all our tools of peaceful reconciliation of conflict,” Sir Mark added. “Too often in my life, Remembrance Day seems a kind of shoulder shrug that war is inevitable. I do not believe it is.”
The PPU organises an annual National Alternative Remembrance Ceremony and campaigns for “nonviolent approaches to conflict and against all forms of militarism”.
The organisation previously got flack for launching an intiative that seeks to “decolonise remembrance”. The PPU said this was crucial for confronting whitewashed parts of British history, including the victims of colonial wars. Though some, including former shadow defence secretary James Cartlidge claimed it “would completely undermine” the message of remembering the “sacrifice of those who gave their lives so that we can be free”.
But one former member of the British armed forces reacted angrily to Rylance’s support for the PPU, with former British Army Officer Colonel Hamish de Bretton-Gordon claiming that Mr Rylance “is very happy to take money to perform in a film like Dunkirk but then just spits in the face of veterans still serving by wearing a white poppy”, The Telegraph reported.
“The poppy is for everybody who suffered and died,” he told the newspaper, saying Hitler saw civilians as combatants, “so does Putin”.
“I can’t express it more determinedly how much I abhor this white poppy lot,” he added.
Col Philip Ingram, a 26-year veteran of the British Army, claimed the campaign was trying to “hijack” Remembrance.
“Every time someone attacks the symbolism of the red poppy and tries to undermine it, it’s like a punch in the gut for a veteran,” he told the paper. “We bite our tongues.. but it hurts every time someone attacks the red poppy.”
The RBL said it “defends the right to wear different poppies, and we welcome all conversations about the meaning of the poppy and the different ways people choose to remember”.
“Our charitable objects are to support those who have served in the British Armed Forces, and their families, and the RBL’s red poppy recognises their service and sacrifice in defence of peace, democracy, and freedom,” the spokesperson added.
“Since 1921, the red poppy has been an enduring symbol of remembrance and hope for a peaceful future, and importantly, it raises vital funds to provide support to those in the Armed Forces community in need.”
Express.co.uk has approached Mr Rylance for comment.