Memorial services, parades and seas of red poppies pay tribute to the soldiers who laid down their lives a century ago. We salute you!

In Hermanus this memorial service was held at the War Memorial - just above the Old Harbour

Remembrance started long before the guns of the Western Front fell silent with people marking the loss or absence of loved ones away at war, after more than four years of continuous warfare during the First World War. 100 years later, the personal and political resonances of remembrance still stir strong emotions.

History of the Poppy

During World War I (1914–1918) much of the fighting took place in Western Europe. Previously a beautiful countryside was bombed, blasted and fought over, again and again. The landscape quickly turned into fields of mud with barren scenes where little or nothing could grow.

Bright red Flanders poppies (Papaver rhoeas) however, were delicate but resilient flowers and grew in their thousands, flourishing even in the middle of chaos and destruction.

"In Flanders fields, the poppies blow, between the crosses, row on row."

So begins the poem In Flanders Fields'.

In early May 1915, shortly after losing a friend, a Canadian doctor, Lt Col John McCrae was inspired by the sight of poppies to write this now famous poem written during the First World War by John McCrae, a Canadian physician mourning the loss of his fellow soldier and friend. History of the poppy

Hermanus War Memorial

This war memorial in Hermanus was built after World War I, in 1929 in memory of those who died in WW I.

The monument was designed by a Cape Town architect and the gun shells was taken from rock piles in Hermanus. The first plaque bore the names of 11 men of Hermanus who had fallen in the first World War, and the second plaque bears a further 15 names of Hermanus residents who were killed in the Second World War.

The first guns at the monument were two German field guns captured in South West Africa during the First World War. Later they were replaced by naval guns. Being close to the sea, the old guns weathered. The wooden spokes in a wheel casing were falling apart.

Military contributions and casualties in World War I

More than 146,000 whites, 83,000 blacks and 2,500 people of mixed race ("Coloureds") and Asians served in South African military units during the war, including 43,000 in German South-West Africa and 30,000 on the Western Front. An estimated 3,000 South Africans also joined the Royal Flying Corps. The total South African casualties during the war was about 18,600 with over 12,452 killed - more than 4,600 in the European theater alone.