Poppy for WWI remembrance, making a British symbol In the build-up to November 11 -- Armistice Day in 1918 -- red poppies are seen on television, jacket lapels, car bumpers and newspaper mastheads as a symbol of remembrance for the wartime dead. Many of the paper flowers are made in the original Poppy Factory, founded in 1922 to provide work for sick, injured or disabled veterans. It still produces half a million paper poppies by hand each year. File images