Black Poppy Rose

The story

Remember all who served

BlackPoppyRose was created by historian and genealogist Selena Carty, from Brixton in London, and launched in September 2010.

Its mission is to educate people of all nations about these communities' part in history. It is not a replacement for the red poppy: it stands beside it, to tell the stories that often go untold. The organisation makes remembrance pins and wreaths, runs workshops and education sessions, builds exhibitions and helps families document their own military history.

Its aims are to make BlackPoppyRose a worldwide symbol of remembrance, to educate and empower people through an understanding of historical timelines, and to strengthen self-identity within these communities.

"We are encouraging the world to remember legacies past and to heal many of the traumas we still endure to this day."Selena Carty, founder of BlackPoppyRose

Reading the logo

What the symbol means

• 14 letters (5, 5, 4). 5 × 5 × 4 = 100, for the 100 years since the end of the First World War, and for the end of ignorance about the contribution of people of African origin to Europe's wars.
• Curved letters with few angles, for a spirit and will that can be bent, but not broken.
• A black poppy, for the sacrifice of Africans and people of the African diaspora in war.
• Four petals, for the four corners of the world they came from, and the four corners of the world where they fought.
• Each petal shaped like a 9, the highest single digit, for the highest sacrifice: freedom and life.

Source: BlackPoppyRose, "Meaning of the new logo".

Camp X and BlackPoppyRose

Why it matters to Camp X

For Camp X Tours by FRC, remembrance is the heart of everything: every tour stands on ground where Allied agents trained for the secret war.

BlackPoppyRose widens that remembrance to the Black, Caribbean and Indigenous men and women whose service is too often left out of the story, the same history behind Camp X FRC's Caribbean roots and its Camp X Jamaica collection. We wear it, share it and carry it on Remembrance Day and all year round.