The first ceramic poppy is removed by John Mould, an employee of Hampton Court Palace for over 50 years, from the moat of the Tower of London on Wednesday as work begins to dismantle the “Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red” installation, commemorating armed services personnel killed in the First World War. Since July 17, 19,000 volunteers helped to plant 888,246 ceramic poppies, one for each British and colonial soldier killed in the War. The poignancy of the art installation will become fully apparent over the coming days as one by one the poppies are removed until nothing remains but memories. (AFP)

London, Nov. 15: David Cameron is marking the start of the G20 summit in Brisbane by presenting red ceramic poppies to six fellow Commonwealth Prime Ministers, including Narendra Modi, as a way of expressing gratitude for the contribution made by their respective nations to Britain during the First World War, it was revealed in London today.

India’s contribution was by far the biggest and its loss the heaviest.

Official reports state that in the First World War from 1914 to 1919, “1,440,500 men and women, including 100,000 Gurkhas, volunteered for service in the British Indian Army. They fought on the Western Front, in Gallipoli, Persia, Egypt, Palestine and Mesopotamia.”

The reports add that by the end of the war, “113,743 Indians were reported dead, wounded or missing”.

Cameron also gave poppies to the summit’s host, Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott, John Key of New Zealand, Stephen Harper of Canada, Lee Hsien Loong of Singapore and President Jacob Zuma of South Africa.

Each poppy was presented with the quotation, by poet John Maxwell Edmonds, from the famous epitaph in the Kohima Allied war cemetery: “When you go home, tell them of us and say/ For your tomorrow, we gave our today.”

Cameron took the poppies from the 888,246 “planted” in the moat that runs round the Tower of London in an installation designed by the artist Paul Cummin and known as “Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red”.

The artwork, marking the centenary of the outbreak of hostilities in 1914, was viewed by an estimated five million visitors to the Tower in the weeks leading up to the remembrance commemorations, and was visited by the Queen and Duke of Edinburgh, as well as Princes William and Harry.

Each poppy represents a British or Commonwealth casualty of the First World War. The installation is currently being dismantled and the poppies being sold at £25 each to over 600,000 who desire to keep a memento of their history. It was decided not to make the installation permanent because its very impermanence “reflected the young lives who were lost on a tragic scale”.

Save for a few exceptions, tales of Indian heroism have largely been forgotten.

Cameron said: “The extraordinary poppy display at the Tower of London caught the imagination of so many people across Britain and I wanted to share some of that with my fellow Commonwealth leaders, recognising the sacrifice their countries made to secure our freedom.”

“We must never forget all those who stood alongside us in those dark times and the poppy display really highlighted the collective effort and sacrifice of the First World War,” the British Prime Minister added.