Remembrance Sunday 2018

If you are in South Kensington between now and Remembrance Sunday, 11 November 2018, do come into the V&A to take a last look at our 16 ceramic poppies which have been on display throughout the final year of the First World War centenary. They can be found in the Members’ Reception just up the stairs from the west end of the Hintze Sculpture Gallery.

The Museum acquired the poppies for its permanent collections in memory of the 16 members of V&A staff who died in the First World War. The names of the staff members are recorded on a memorial tablet in the Cromwell Road entrance to the Museum.

Memorial tablet to the 16 members of V&A Museum staff killed in the First World War.
Incised Hopton Wood stone, made 1919-20
Eric Gill (1882–1940) with H. Joseph Cribb (1892-1967)
A.4-1999 Purchased by staff subscription from Eric Gill
Image ©Victoria and Albert Museum, London.

Our poppies formed part of the poignant, dramatic and phenomenally successful installation Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red by Paul Cummins MBE and Tom Piper MBE, which was sited in the dry moat of the Tower of London between 5 August and 11 November 2014. Over 5 million people came to see the 888,246 flowers which were gradually ‘planted’ by thousands of volunteers throughout the exhibition period. The combined visual impact of such a vast number of poppies, each one representing a British or Allied military fatality, caused many to reflect quietly on the scale of lives lost. All the poppies from the Tower of London installation were sold and proceeds were given to six Services charities.