Legion Timeline

Legion events in black, world events in blue

Dates Events

1914 – 1918 First World War

1915, August 21 First recorded Poppy Day in Britain. It raises money for a hospital in South Shields.

1916, September 13 The National Association of Discharged Sailors and Soldiers is founded in Blackburn, in reaction to inadequate pensions for servicemen in comparison with civilians, unfairness in the allocation of awards and lack of employment opportunities. It grows out of the local labour and trade union movement.

April 1917 A second body, the National Federation of Discharged and Demobilised Sailors and Soldiers is founded in London, by two Liberal MPs, in reaction to the Military Service (Review of Exceptions) Bill which sought to conscript men previously declared unfit for service on medical grounds, including the wounded.

1917, August 22 The Comrades of the Great War is launched in London by a group of Conservative MPs as a political reaction to the establishment of the Federation.

1918, August 4 First Remembrance Service (discontinued after 2 years).

1919, November 11 First Armistice Service (informal) and first use of the Two Minute Silence.

1920, January The Officers’ Association is founded.

1920, November 11 Burial of the Unknown Warrior in Westminster Abbey and the unveiling of the Cenotaph on Whitehall.

1921, February Earl Haig and Jan Smuts announce the formation of the British Empire Services League.

1921, May 15 The British Legion is formed by the amalgamation of four organisations (above) focused on delivering welfare to ex-Servicemen and their families after the First World War.

“The part that the British Legion will play in the nation will be decided by the Branches of the Legion. The Legion is a body which will give to the individual ex-Service man, without regard to his war rank, an opportunity of serving his country in order that the victory of 1918 may have been worth the sacrifice.” TF Lister July 1921.

The Legion’s constitution is agreed at the Unity Conference in London. It was proposed by soldier and seconded by a general in the spirit of equality that the early Legionnaires are determined should endure.

Edward Prince of Wales becomes first Patron; Earl Haig is National President, Fred Lister National Chairman and Major Jack Brunel Cohen is the first Honorary Treasurer.

1921, July First edition of the Legion’s monthly magazine, the Journal, appears.

1921, July 24 The Women’s Section of the British Legion is formed. The Duchess of York, later HM The Queen and subsequently HM the Queen Mother, becomes Patron of the Women’s Section in 1924, a role she holds until her death in 2002. Her Royal Highness Princess Anne, the Princess Royal, succeeds her as Patron.

1921, Summer The Legion in Scotland votes to remain separate from the British Legion in England, Wales and the island of Ireland.

1921, September Madame Anna Guérin arrives from Canada and persuades the Legion to adopt the Poppy as a symbol Remembrance and hope for a peaceful future.

1921, October 6 Earl Haig announces in The Times that 11 November shall from now on be known as Remembrance Day and will be marked by a service at the Cenotaph and a Poppy Day Appeal to raise money for the Legion’s welfare activities.

1921, November 11 First Remembrance Day and first Poppy Day Appeal, which raises £106,000 (£5.25 million in 2021).

1921, December National Chairman, Fred Lister, announces that 2,500 branches of the British Legion had been set up. This is the same number as exist in 2021.

1921 Overseas branches are established including Tanganyika (Tanzania), Kenya, Hong Kong & China, Gibraltar, Paris and Cologne.

1922 - 1923 Irish Civil War

1922, August Poppy Production moves from France to Britain. The Legion’s Poppy Factory opens in the Old Kent Road, London. 40 disabled men manufacture 1,000 poppies a week. By 1923 the factory is solely responsible for the Legion’s poppies. 30 million are required annually.

1923, November King’s Regulations change so members of the Armed Forces can wear poppies on uniforms.

1923, November 11 John Foulds War Requiem performed in the Royal Albert Hall on Armistice evening for four consecutive years

1923, November Wreaths laid at the Cenotaph now predominantly made of poppies.

1925 A ceremony is held in the then Indian village of Dulmial. The people are presented with a cannon as a mark of gratitude for the village’s response to appeals for men to fight in the British Army. A total of 460 men, over half the male population, signed up. 9 were never to return. Dulmial is known as the Village with the Gun.

1925 The Legion acquires Preston Hall in Kent, a farming and horticultural concern with industry for settlers. It turns the existing sanatorium into a TB Hospital and creates a village for the families of TB suffers. The industries and farming increase. Angora rabbits prove a money spinner. The industries eventually become RBLI.

1926 Birth of Princess Elizabeth

1927, November First Festival of Remembrance held at the Royal Albert Hall, London.

1927 Businessman Arthur Beckwith gifts the Cambrian Woollen Factory to the Legion, which has been employing disabled men since 1918.

1927 Legion sets up first off-street carparking in Rochdale.

1927 Fred Lister retires as Chairman and is succeeded by Colonel Crosfield.

1928, January 29 Sudden death of Earl Haig, the Legion’s President, sends shock waves of grief through the Legion and the country as a whole. His state funeral in February draws hundreds of thousands of people onto the streets.

1928 The Legion’s Taxi School in London opens its doors. Over 5,000 London taxi drivers pass the School’s stringent training and testing until its closure in 1995.

1928 Southern Area Staff perform ceremonial duties at the annual Sandhurst parade for the first time.

1928, November Women are represented at the Festival of Remembrance for the first time.

1928, November First Field of Remembrance appears on the lawns outside St Margaret’s Westminster in London.

1929- 1933 The Great Depression

1929, November The Poppy Drop is introduced into the Festival of Remembrance. Today the poppies used in the drop are made of crepe paper which means they are light and fall more slowly than paper ones.

1932 The Legion purchases Haig House in Ypres to provide a base for pilgrims. It fulfils that function for 16 years.

1933 Adolf Hitler becomes Chancellor of Germany

1934, June 350 South African veterans and widows make a pilgrimage to London and on to France in memory of the men from their country who died at Delville Wood and on other battlefields of the First World War.

1936 Death of George V

1936 Succession and Abdication of Edward VIII

1936 – 1952 Reign of George VI

1938, November The Poppy Appeal raises £600,000 (£40 million in 2021).

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1939 - 1945 Second World War

1939, September 3 Outbreak of the Second World War. That summer Hon. Treasurer, Major Brunel Cohen, tells the Women’s Section conference that £600,000 (£40 million) of the 1938 Poppy Day Appeal funds had been spent on welfare. Today that figure stands at over £100 million.

1942 Fred Lister and Colonel George Crosfield advise Government on post-war planning.

1944, February The National Spinal Injuries Unit opens at Stoke Mandeville, run by Professor Guttmann. The Legion is wholly supportive of his ideas to introduce sport and physiotherapy to treat those with spinal injuries. Four years later the Stoke Mandeville Games are launched to coincide with the London Olympics and in 1960 the Paralympics are born.

1944 Disabled Persons (Employment) Act 1944 passed in Parliament. The Legion influences and plays a major part in achieving it.

1945, May 8 End of the Second World War in Europe. The Legion votes to include ‘this-war’ men and their families within the Legion’s remit.

1945, August 6 & 9 Dropping of Atom Bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki

1945, August 15 V-J Day, end of the Second World War with victory over Japan in the Far East.

1945 The Legion buys three large houses to provide country home provision for the ‘aged and incapacitated’. They are named after prominent Legion figures including Lister House in Ripon. A further house is purchased in 1950.

1945, October The Journal cites the Legion’s stand that men with mental health problems should be treated medically and that there should be no stigma attached to either them or their families. It estimates over 130,000 cases of ‘war inspired neurosis’ (now known as PTSD).

1945, November Her Royal Highness Princess Elizabeth attends the Festival of Remembrance at the Royal Albert Hall for the first time. Since then, Her Majesty The Queen has only missed the Festival twice, her latest attendance being in 2020.

1946 The Legion removes Haig’s portrait from the front cover of the Journal as public criticism of their first president grows.

1946 The Legion opens the first of its four convalescent homes in Southport, Lancashire.

1946 The Legion opens an office in Brussels to help those wishing to visit war graves. The Legion’s representative worked closely with the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.

1946, May The Legion mark its first quarter century with a parade and service at the Cenotaph. It declares: ‘Pioneers work stands the test of time.’ Sir Brunel Cohen retires as Honorary Treasurer after 25 years.

1946, May Women’s Section emerges from the Second World War ‘with honours’. Their Patron HM The Queen (later the Queen Mother) speaks at the Women’s conference and says: ‘Let’s rebuild our national life on a sure foundation.’ She remains Patron of the Women’s Section for another 51 years. 1,300 delegates attend the conference.

1946 The Legion takes over a 50-bed hospital at Arlesley, Bedfordshire, to treat patients with rheumatism and arthritis. Of the 287 patients admitted over a year, 236 improve dramatically.

1946 The Women’s Section sets up a children’s home in Richmond, South London, for boys and girls of the ex-Service community who had lost both parents or who could not be brought up by their families. A second home is opened in 1949 for children with special needs.

1947 Glenthorne House overlooking Portland Harbour opens offering 220 women a fortnight a year of relaxation and good food. By 1950 there are three homes offering 800 women a year convalescent facility.

1948 - 1960 The Malayan Emergency

1948 The Health Service Act is introduced and with that the Legion’s TB enterprise is dismembered. Preston Hall Hospital, Nayland and Douglas House are each transferred to their local regional hospital board. The Legion remains involved in the management board of Preston Hall hospital into the 1960s to ensure preference for ex-Service personnel suffering from TB and other chest complaints.

1948 The Legion organises 4,000 visits to graves in France, The Netherlands and Denmark. 85 per cent of the cost is born by the government, the Legion pays the remaining 15 per cent.

1949, November Poppy stakes in the Field of Remembrance are ordered in tidy rows for the first time, though battlefield grave markers remain.

1949 The number of graves’ visits rises to 7,000.

1949 The War Pensions Act passes in Parliament. The Legion had been active in lobbying for it.

1950 - 1953 Korean War

1950 Five years after the end of the war the Legion has made over 4,000 loans and helped men to set up enterprises as chimney sweeps, steeple jacks, dentists, cosmetic manufacturers and rug makers. Former ATS are given loans to start boarding houses by the seaside.

1950 Peak number of branches totalling almost 5,500; the Legion’s Journal had a circulation of 120,000, almost double that of pre-war.

1950 By 1950 the Legion has four ‘country home’s and four ‘convalescent homes’.

1951 Operation KK – Knitting for Korea – produces 1,500 woollen garments at short notice.

1951 Netherlands hosts and pays for pilgrimages to Nijmegen. This lasts for 21 years.

1952 – present reign of Queen Elizabeth II

1952 - 1960 Kenya Emergency breaks out

1953 Women’s Section branches deal with flooding on the East Coast. Leigh on Sea members take in over 350 evacuees.

1953, Summer Legion balls and galas staged all over the world, from Arras to Istanbul to mark the coronation of Her Majesty The Queen.

November 1953 The Festival of Remembrance is televised for the first time on the BBC.

1955 The Women’s Section records almost 3,300 branches and 16,000 new members.

1955 – 59 Cyprus Emergency

1956 Suez Crisis

1957, October Poppy Sellers become Poppy Collectors.

1959 The Poppy leaf is dropped as being too expensive (reintroduced 1987).

1961 The Legion’s first chairman is knighted and becomes Sir Frederick Lister to mark the 40th anniversary of the founding of the Legion. Many feel the recognition is long overdue.

1961, July 29 Women are admitted to the Legion’s National Executive for the first time.

1961 ‘Looking to the Future’ is the theme of the Duke of Edinburgh’s speech at the 40th anniversary conference. The Legion responds by holding week-long national leadership forums for men and women under 50.

1962 The Queen visits the Poppy Factory and meets the youngest employee, a National Serviceman disabled having been shot in Cyprus.

1963 Galanos House is opened thanks to a legacy from Christos Galanos, a Greek businessman, who much admired the British. For the first time Legion homes have single bedsitting rooms rather than wards.

1963 – 1967 The Aden Emergency

1965 Operation Supercharge launches to increase membership and help to add political weight to the Legion’s campaigning .

1966 Death of Sir Frederick Lister marks the end of an era as all those who had helped form the British Legion in 1921 are now dead.

1966 50th anniversary pilgrimage to the Somme.

1966 First pilgrimage entirely on German soil. 95 pilgrims visited graves of airmen shot down in raids on Bremen.

1967 Closure of the Legion’s children’s homes.

1967 The black bitumen centre and wire stems of the poppy are replaced by green and black plastic. Poppy is reduced to a single style.

1967 Release of ‘Oh! What a Lovely War’ does further damage to Haig’s reputation.

1967 A Legion member travels to Aden to visit his 18-year-old son’s grave. There would not be a Legion pilgrimage there for another 30 years.

1968 - 1998 The Troubles in Northern Ireland

1968 The carpark Attendants Company celebrates its silver jubilee with over 900 disabled ex-Servicemen on the payroll.

1969 Car poppy replaced with sticker.

1969 Dennis Cadman becomes the first Second World War man to lead the Legion.

June 1969 25th anniversary pilgrimage to Normandy to mark D-Day and to Anzio to mark the landings in Italy.

1971 Death of the Duke of Windsor

May 1971 The Legion marks its 50th anniversary and is given the title Royal. The Queen’s crown is added to the badge. Rededication ceremony at Westminster Abbey.

1 July 1971 4,000 members and guests attend a royal garden party at Buckingham Palace.

1971 BBC decides not to send the Festival of Remembrance out live but edited. Legion concerns are misplaced and audience numbers are high.

1971 The Legion joins the WVF (World Veterans Association).

1972 The first ‘Miss Royal British Legion’ crowned.

October 1972 Chairman of the Belfast Branch of the Legion killed by a bomb explosion.

1973 The Legion’s Annual Conference resolves that the wording for the Cenotaph service should change from remembering ‘the dead of two world wars’ to ‘all who had died in the service of their country’. The government does not accept the change until 1979.

1973-4 The three-day week and the winter of discontent

1974 The government requires VAT for poppies. The Legion negotiates with the Treasury and VAT is withdrawn.

1975 Charles Busby became the first Chairman who is not from the Army. He had flown with the RAF during the Second World War.

1977 HM The Queen’s silver jubilee. The Legion parades at Windsor Castle.

1982 Falklands War

1982 The Falklands War encourages a new generation to support the Armed Forces and the Legion.

1983, November First Legion youth band performs at the Festival of Remembrance.

1983 Mrs Sara Jones, widow of Falklands VC Lt Col ‘H’ Jones, launches the Poppy Appeal to bring home the reality of the sacrifice that war involves.

1987 The Annual Conference votes for poppies with leaves. This causes an issue as two hands are required. By 1995 the Poppy Factory can supply 10 million poppies with leaves made through an automated process. That year the HF (Haig Fund) in the centre of the poppy disappears: ‘it seemed unnecessary’.

1990 Legion wants public to pay £1 for poppies. It launches the appeal with images of Nazi troops in London with the phrase: ‘Give Thanks – It could have happened – It very nearly did.’ It is highly controversial, but takings are up by £1 million.

1990 - 1991 Gulf War

1991 The Legion organises parcels for each man and woman in the British Forces in the Gulf for Christmas. It is so popular it continues the following year and also to Bosnia, Belize and other countries with British Forces.

1991 The Kohima Epitaph is included in the service of Remembrance for the first time.

1992 - 1995 Bosnian War

1994, June 6 50th Anniversary of D-Day.

1995, May 8 50th Anniversary of VE Day marked by parade of Legion Standards in London. HM The Queen as President of the Legion lights a beacon in Hyde Park, the signal for a chain of a thousand beacons to flare throughout the UK.

1995 First Pedal to Paris.

1995 Conference passes a motion to reintroduce the Two Minute Silence at 11am on 11 November. Legion launches ‘Pause to Remember’ campaign and is successful. Over half the population observes the Silence and 90% of the public indicate in a poll that they wish to see it repeated in 1996.

1996, October 30 Cross party support in the House of Commons for the marking of the Two Minute Silence. Tony Blair said he would be marking it in his office, Paddy Ashdown would lay a wreath at his local Memorial. Prime minister John Major said it was fitting for each of us to have the opportunity to reflect. The press followed this closely, hoping there would be parliamentary support to formalise the initiative.

1996, November 11 The Prime Minister officially marks the Two Minutes Silence for the first time since the Second World War.

1997 The Spice Girls join Vera Lynn to launch the Poppy Appeal. That year takings are up by over £1 million.

1998 – 1999 War in Kosovo

2001 The National Memorial Arboretum is formally unveiled.

2001 9/11

2001 – 2013 The Global War on Terrorism

2001 – 2014 The War in Afghanistan

2002 Her Majesty The Queen unveils the Memorial Gates on Constitution Hill in London. The memorial is the inspiration of Baroness Flather, the first Indian woman to be appointed to the House of Lords. It commemorates the 5 million men and women from the Indian subcontinent, Africa and the Caribbean who fought with the British Armed Forces in the two world Wars.

2002 Death of HM Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother

2003 – 2011 The Iraq War and Insurgency

2004 The Legion takes over responsibility for the National Memorial Arboretum.

2005 7/7

2005 First responders are included in the Festival of Remembrance for the first time in acknowledgement of their role in the 7/7 bomb attacks on London.

2007 Her Majesty The Queen unveils the Armed Forces Memorial at the National Memorial Arboretum.

2009 The Legion moves its HQ from Pall Mall to Haig House on Borough High Street. Haig House is unveiled by Her Majesty The Queen.

2009 Establishment of the Battle Back Centre at the Sports England site near Telford.

2011 Poppyscotland merges with the Royal British Legion.

2011 The Armed Forces Covenant is placed in legislation, following the Legion’s successful Honour the Covenant campaign.

2011 The Legion funds the establishment of the RBL Centre for Blast Injuries Studies at Imperial College London, using pioneering science to prevent blast injuries and care for the after effects of those with blast injuries.

2014 Centenary of the First World War is marked by Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red at the Tower of London. 888,246 poppies each represent the life of a member of the British Armed Forces lost in the First World War.

2016 The launch of Branch Community Support which has played such a vital role over the period of the Covid-19 pandemic.

2016 The Invictus Games are launched by Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex. The Legion supports the families of athletes who take part. This continues in Toronto and Sydney in subsequent years.

2017 The Khadi Poppy is launched at Lords by Indian and England cricket captains Virat Kohli and Joe Root. The brainchild of Lord Gadhia, it creates a media sensation in the UK and India. It celebrates the oversized sacrifice of Indian servicemen and women in both world wars.

2018 GP 90, the Grand Pilgrimage, marks the 90th anniversary of the Great Pilgrimage of 1928.

2019 D-Day 75 is marked by a seven-day cruise around the Channel with 255 veterans, their carers and support staff aboard the MV Boudicca, culminating in a service of thanksgiving on the beaches of Normandy.

2020 – Coronavirus Pandemic

2020 The Legion marks VE Day under lockdown with a virtual celebration online.

2020 The Legion’s campaign Count Them In is successful and for the first time in the history of the census a question about the Armed Services will be included (for 2021).

2020 VJ Day 75 is marked by a magnificent ceremony at the National Memorial Arboretum attended by veterans and representatives from the 14th Army, the Gurkhas and prisoners of the Japanese. It was attended by HRHs the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall as well as the Prime Minister.

Facts about the early founders:

Field Marshal Earl Haig was a keen golfer and president of the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews from 1920 to 1921. He was President of the Legion from 1921 until his sudden death in January 1928. Although he came across as austere, he was deeply committed to the men and families helped by the Legion and was often visibly moved by disabled men he encountered on his travels around the country. He was founder of the British Empire Services League.

Sir Frederick ‘Fred’ Lister was an accident manager for an insurance firm in Birkenhead. He stood 6’ 6” tall (1.98m), which was over 12” (30cm) taller than the average man at the beginning of the 20th century. He served with the Royal Garrison Artillery from 1914 to 1916 when he was badly wounded and medically discharged. Lister was the first and longest serving National Chairman. (1921 to 1927). He was a member of the National Executive until his death in 1966. From 1942 to 1948 he was chairman of the United Services Fund.

Major Jack Brunel Cohen lost both his legs above the knee in the 3rd Battle of Ypres. He could walk short distances on his prosthetic limbs but was usually seen in his electric wheelchair or adapted car. He was the Conservative MP for Liverpool Fairfield from 1918 to 1931 and an active campaigner in Parliament for disabled ex-Servicemen and all people with disabilities. He was the Legion’s Hon. Treasurer from 1921 to 1946. His favourite sport was water-skiing was waterskiing. He had a special board made and was towed behind a motorboat on a lake in Switzerland when on his annual holiday with friends.

Colonel George Crosfield was the Legion’s first Vice Chairman and National Chairman from 1927 to 1930. He began his active service career in the South African War and won a DSO in the First World War for bravery at the Battle of the Bluff. He lost a leg at St Eloi in 1916 but retrained as a night bomber pilot in the RAF in 1918. He was described as a man with infectious enthusiasm ‘a hard fighter and a virile force’. He was a member of the peace delegation to Germany in 1935.