Remembrance isn’t just a date in my calendar – it’s part of who I am. I’ve felt the silence of Armistice Day and the weight of memory it carries. But I’ve also watched how symbols like the poppy have been politicised, and how that risks sidelining the very people Remembrance was meant to honour, says Ian Cumming.

I still remember the first Remembrance after I left the military. The silence that didn’t feel long enough, still never does. For those of us who’ve worn the uniform, November isn’t about pageantry and posturing. It’s about honouring those that no longer stand beside us.

I’ve lost colleagues and seen others harmed or still suffering the effects decades on, so the need for remembering is never lost on me. November arrives every year with the same questions: did we do enough for them then, and are we doing enough for those now?

I find Remembrance both personally poignant and professionally complex. Like many who have served and known losses, Remembrance is not an abstract concept to me. It is woven into my own memories and into the daily work I now do at Erskine Veterans Charity. Yet each year, as Armistice Day nears, I am troubled by how Remembrance, and particularly the poppy, have become divisively politicised. In all honesty – I think twice about wearing the poppy in certain circumstances – lest people misinterpret it.

What jars most is watching people with no experience of service use the poppy as a test of loyalty or reject it to make a political point. For those of us who have faced the harsh realities of war, Remembrance is not a performance – it’s a promise.

Read more:

Those who served, and why they served, are too often stereotyped. Charities like Erskine, and the Veterans we support, are sometimes mischaracterised or caught in the........

© Herald Scotland