Remembrance poppy inspires Bishop’s Stortford History Society’s November lecture
The story behind the Remembrance poppy is the subject of Bishop’s Stortford History Society’s November lecture.
In his talk “From Flanders Field to the Tower” on Thursday November 20, Richard Thomas will explore how, in 2014, the centenary of the start of the Great War was commemorated by the creation of “Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red”, a public art installation created in the moat of the Tower of London.
It consisted of 888,246 ceramic red poppies, representing the number of British or colonial serviceman killed in the conflict. The work’s title was taken from the first line of a poem by an unknown soldier in the First World War. The artist was Paul Cummins, with conceptual design by stage designer Tom Piper.
Each month, society chair Tim Howard-Smith reviews the previous month’s lecture in the Indie. In October, the subject was “The Huguenot Legacy”. He writes…
“Rosemary Hayes, a prolific writer of over 50 books, leaned heavily on her own Huguenot ancestry when writing The King’s Command, and the research for this book formed the basis of her October talk to the Bishop’s Stortford History Society.
“She explained to a capacity audience how various influxes of French Calvinist Protestants, known as Huguenots, had been welcomed and seamlessly absorbed into the financial, mercantile and artisanal life of England from the 1570s onwards.
“The accession of Louis XIV and his later revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685 led to 200,000 leaving France, with a quarter making England their home.
“The impact of these waves of exiles arriving here was immense, with every facet of life being affected.
“The first governor of the Bank of England, our own Sir John Houblon, of Hallingbury Place; the Portal family, who invented the modern banknote; De Moivre, who singlehandedly gave us modern life assurance; Roget and his thesaurus; Cazenove, the leading stockbroker; and Sir James Houblon, ‘the father of the Stock Exchange’, were all Huguenot emigrés.
“They introduced silk weaving to this country, and their workshops in Spitalfields were the first factories. The Courtauld family of Huguenots developed their textile business from this early start.
“John Dolland started a spectacle company that existed until recently, and the Speaker’s State Coach, built in 1698 and the oldest of the UK’s state coaches, was designed and built by Huguenots.
“They were famous gold and silversmiths, and established themselves in cities such as Canterbury, Norwich and mainly London.
“They established their own churches, but today only one, ‘the French Church’, survives in Soho, indicative of the Huguenots’ swift integration within English society.
“Some did anglicise their names, but most did not, and it is those names with which we are so familiar today.
“In 1572, before the first purge, the St Bartholomew’s Massacre, the Huguenot proportion of France’s population was about 10%, but by 1700 it had been reduced to a few tens of thousands. France’s loss was to prove to be England’s gain.
“Today, one in five people in England can claim Huguenot ancestry, including the writer, such was their impact. This was a most interesting, informative and well-received talk.”
Refreshments will be served at the start and end of the November 20 talk. Annual membership of Bishop’s Stortford History Society, which this year celebrates its 70th anniversary, costs £20. Non-members are welcome to all meetings for a £5 fee, payable at the door. See www.bishopsstortfordhistorysociety.org.uk.