The Royal British Legion is the UK's leading charity providing financial, social and emotional support to millions who have served and are currently serving in the Armed Forces, and their dependants. Currently, nearly 10.5 million people are eligible for our support and we receive thousands of calls for help every year.

The Legion was founded in 1921 as a voice for the ex-Service community and over 450,000 members continue to ensure that this voice does not go unheard. Although the needs of ex-Service people have changed over the years, we are still there to safeguard their welfare, interests and memory. British service people are in action around the world every day of the year. They know that if they need our support - now or in the future - the Legion is always on active duty for them.

Legion Values

• Reflection - Through Remembrance of past sacrifice in the cause of freedom
• Hope - By remembering the past, a younger generation has the chance of a better future
• Comradeship - Through shared experience and mutual support
• Selflessness - By putting others first
• Service - To those in need and in support of the whole community

What We Do

The Royal British Legion is one of the country's leading ex-Service charities and largest membership organisations. We are probably best-known for our role as the nation's custodian of Remembrance and for the Poppy Appeal which we organise annually.

Poppy Support

Poppy Support is the new name for all our welfare services. It is split into six categories: Poppy Advice, Poppy Funds, Poppy Breaks, Poppy Homes, Poppy Travel and Poppy People. Over 10.5 million people in the UK are eligible for our help, so if you or someone you know is serving, ex-Service or a dependant and in need, please call Legionline on 08457 725 725. We’d like to be able to help. Click here for more information about the help we can offer.

The Poppy Appeal

Each year the nation expresses its unequivocal support for our work through its generous support of the Poppy Appeal raising over £20 million which goes towards our vital welfare work.

History of the Poppy Appeal

The first official Legion Poppy Day was held in Britain on 11 November 1921, inspired by the poem In Flanders' Fields written by John McCrae. Since then the Poppy Appeal has been a key annual event in the nation's calendar.

How the Poppy Appeal began

Some of the bloodiest fighting of World War One took place in the Flanders and Picardy regions of Belgium and Northern France. The poppy was the only thing which grew in the aftermath of the complete devastation. McCrae, a doctor serving there with the Canadian Armed Forces, deeply inspired and moved by what he saw, wrote these verses:

In Flanders' Fields
John McCrae, 1915

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.

We are the dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders' fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe;
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high,
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders' Fields.

On the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month in 1918, the First World War ended. Civilians wanted to remember the people who had given their lives for peace and freedom. An American War Secretary, Moina Michael, inspired by John McCrae's poem, began selling poppies to friends to raise money for the ex-Service community. And so the tradition began.

Remembrance

We are the nation's de facto custodian of Remembrance, ensuring that people remember those who have given their lives for the freedom we enjoy. We are responsible for the Two Minute Silence on Remembrance Sunday and 11 November. We also organise the annual Festival of Remembrance at the Royal Albert Hall, and assist with the march past at the Cenotaph on Remembrance Sunday.

Campaigning

The Legion is the major voice for ex-Service people, campaigning on issues such as Gulf War Related Illnesses, War Pensions and Noise Induced Hearing Loss. We will continue to press for change as long as the needs of veterans and their dependants remain unrecognised.

Membership

We are one of the country's largest membership organisations, with over 450,000 members nationwide. Members get together through our network of clubs and branches all over the country, and can become involved in the welfare and fundraising work of the Legion. We welcome men and women of all ages, whether they have served in the Armed Forces or not.

Follow this link to find out more about the Legion's work.

You can also call Legionline - our Information Point - on 08457 725 725 (all calls charged at local rates).

Legion Facts & Statistics

• The Royal British Legion is the leading ex-Service charity protecting the welfare, interests and memory of ex-Service people and their families and dependants.
• The Legion was founded in 1921.
• Some 10.5 million people in the UK are eligible to ask for its help.
• The Legion is the UK's largest membership organisation, with over 450,000 members (including the Women's Section). Anyone can be a member, ex-Service or not.
• You don't have to be a Legion member to receive assistance – but you must be an ex-Serviceperson or a dependant. Anyone who has been in the British Armed Forced for seven days or more (and their dependants) is eligible for help.
• People as young as 17.5 years can be sent on active service, so veterans are often much younger than people realise.
• There has only been one year (1968) since the Second World War when a British Service person hasn't been killed on active service.
• Each year the Legion answers thousands of calls for help to its helpline, Legionline.
• It helps with a huge range of issues, including counselling, job retraining, skills assessment, getting the right pensions and benefits, advice and interest free loans for setting up small businesses, welfare grants, Remembrance Travel to war graves, convalescent and nursing care, and home and hospital visits.
• The Legion has close links to many other charities, organisations and trusts, enabling it to draw on the best resources and expertise, and to refer people to those best equipped to help them.
• The Legion will be needed for as long as people continue to be affected by conflict. It doesn't advocate war but is simply there to support those who have been prepared to make a personal sacrifice through serving in the British Armed Forces.
• The Poppy Appeal raised over £23.3 million in 2004.
• In 2004 the Legion spent over £59 million on its work. Apart from donations, funds come from legacies, sponsorship, corporate support, fundraising events.
• 70% of the workers at the Poppy Factory are disabled or suffer from chronic illness. The Factory was designed to offer jobs to such people and its remit remains the same today.
• 300,000 staff and volunteers organise the Poppy Appeal each year
• More than 34 million poppies, 107,000 wreaths and sprays, 800,000 Remembrance Crosses and other Remembrance items will be made at the Poppy Factory in Richmond, Surrey, this year.