We will remember them

Honouring Remembrance Sunday

Above: 36m poppies will be made this year

Remembrance Sunday falls on 12 November. We talk to the Imperial War Museum in Kennington and The Poppy Factory in Richmond about their plans and achievements, Shannon Denny photographs The Somme and we and share collective memories.

Imperial War Museum
Forgotten Voices
1 November, 7pm
Forgotten Voices is Malcolm McKay's stage version of Max Arthur's best-selling book, Forgotten Voices of the Great War, taken from oral testimony of veterans of the First World War. McKay has distilled these extraordinary and powerful witness statements into the voices of six characters who movingly reveal their memories of the killing fields of The Somme, the terrifying mud of Paschendale, the gas attacks, the hunger at home, the munitions factories and, finally, the muted joy of victory in a war that claimed more lives than any other in history.

Armistice
11 November, 11am
The Museum will commemorate the Armistice with a two-minute silence, followed by a brief recital performed on the Western Front violin.

Poppies
11 November, 2pm
Film starring Paul McGann as a writer who embarks on a play about the Battle of The Somme. Followed by questions and answers with Paul McGann, Gary Kemp and writer/director Barry Bliss.

Somme Theatre - live performances
15-18 November, 7.30pm
In partnership with The Old Vic Theatre and inspired by the archives of the Imperial War Museum, a newly created script challenges the myths surrounding the First World War. Working alongside professional actors, 50 people from community groups and schools from Lambeth and Southwark will perform in the Museum's atrium surrounded by key exhibits from the First World War.
Tickets are free pre-booking is essential. Call 0870 060 6628

For the family
We Will Remember Them
4, 5, 11, 12 November, 11am-4pm
Create personalised poppies for an art installation on the theme of Remembrance.

Battle Bowlers, Whiz Bangs and Lucky Bleeders
18, 19 November, 11.30am and 2.30pm
Handle artefacts from the First World War and learn the 'trench slang' language soldiers used.
Imperial War Museum, Lambeth Road SE1

(Box office 020 7416 5439; www.iwm.org.uk; boxoffice@iwm.org.uk)

Poppy facts
Now you know how many holes it takes to fill the Albert Hall
• The Royal British Legion Poppy Factory in Richmond makes and assembles all the poppies you will see leading up to and on Remembrance Day.

• This year 36m poppies will be available in England, Wales and Ireland.

• The factory holds the Royal Warrant making personal wreathes and corsages worn by the Royal Family.

• The day after the final consignment leaves the factory for the offices of The Poppy Appeal, work in the factory starts for next year.

• Just 42 people work here making the petals and the leaves - the stems are brought in.

• This year the wooden crosses bearing a poppy will be reintroduced.

(Research by Joanna Biddolph)

The act of remembrance
A prayer for Remembrance Sunday
They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old. Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun, and in the morning, we will remember them.

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.