Poppies and Diamonds for Queen Camilla on Armistice Day

On Tuesday, Queen Camilla took part in an innovative Armistice Day commemoration, wearing a military badge and a very special handmade poppy.

Queen Camilla arrived at Chippenham Station in Wiltshire on Tuesday to participate in the “Poppies to Paddington” event. The Armistice Day commemoration is designed “to remember the important role that railways and its people made during wartime.” Wreaths of poppies from across the Great Western Railway network were collected on special trains bound for London, where they arrived at Paddington Station shortly before eleven o’clock in the morning.

At the station, the wreaths were placed at the Great Western Railway War Memorial on platform one. Queen Camilla laid her wreath, on which a handwritten card reading “In everlasting remembrance, Camilla R” had been affixed. The memorial, originally dedicated to remember employees of the railway who died in World War I, features a moving sculpture by Charles Sargeant Jagger of a soldier reading a letter. Later, the memorial was rededicated to honor those who died in World War II.

For the journey from Wiltshire to London and the service that followed, Queen Camilla wore a favorite pair of gold and diamond earrings, as well as a diamond-set brooch in the shape of the British Army’s Special Reconnaissance Regiment. She has served as the regiment’s Colonel-in-Chief since 2020.

Beside the badge, Camilla pinned a crocheted poppy brooch, which she noted was made from wool that had been spun from the King’s sheep on the Sandringham estate. Before leaving Wiltshire, she collected a special wreath made of crocheted poppies by students from Monkton Park Primary School in Chippenham. The proud students told her that many of them had learned to crochet during the making of the wreath, which Queen Camilla brought to the memorial at Paddington for them.

Crocheted poppies have been a major focus of energy and attention in Wiltshire this year. In October, Queen Camilla traveled to Corsham to visit The Poppy Project at St. Bartholomew’s Church. A cascade of knitted and crocheted poppies surrounds the church’s war memorial, an installation to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II.