Lady Haig's Poppy Factory

This article refers to the Edinburgh based charity, for the older charity based in London see the Poppy Factory

Lady Haig's Poppy Factory is a charity based in Edinburgh Scotland to provide employment to disabled veterans. It is an independent charity, but the name Lady Haig's Poppy Factory is a trading name of Poppyscotland of which it is a subsidiary.[1]

Lady Haig's Poppy Factory was founded in March 1926, shortly after the Royal British Legion's factory in London.[2] It was created to serve the demand for Remembrance Day poppies in Scotland as the demand was so great in England there was little surplus to send to Scotland.

The factory was created[3] at the suggestion of Countess Haig, wife of Field Marshal Douglas Haig, 1st Earl Haig, who had created the Haig Fund to assist ex-servicemen and which still raises funds through the UK's annual poppy appeal.

It grew from two employees in a former wood-chopping factory in the grounds of Whitefoord House to employ over 100 people by the mid-1930s, with a waiting list of over 300. In addition to the main task of making poppies, the employees made other goods by hand which were sold at three shops in Edinburgh and by a travelling shop throughout Scotland. The factory moved to its current premises, a former printing works, in 1965. Staffing levels and the range of good made at the factory gradually declined after the Second World War, and increasing annual deficits were funded by contributions from the Earl Haig Fund Scotland. In 1998, the factory became an independent charitable company, The Lady Haig Poppy Factory Ltd, owned by Earl Haig Fund Scotland Ltd.

The factory is operated by the Earl Haig Fund Scotland and, like the Poppy Factory in Richond, also employs ex-service personnel, many disabled, making five million remembrance poppies in Edinburgh each year, to a slightly different design with four-lobed petals rather than two for English poppies, and 8,000 wreaths.[4]

References

  1. ↑ paul (2015-05-18). "Poppyscotland". Poppyscotland. Retrieved 2016-11-03.
  2. ↑ "The Start - Lady Haig Poppy Factory". Lady Haig Poppy Factory. Retrieved 2016-11-03.
  3. ↑ "The Start - Lady Haig Poppy Factory". Lady Haig Poppy Factory. Retrieved 2016-11-03.
  4. ↑ "How It's Done". Lady Haig's Poppy Factory. Retrieved 10 November 2011.
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