Rembrella Poppy Umbrellas in Australia

Posted on 09/12/2009 by FFFAIF

The images of poppies on the old Flanders battlefields and umbrellas lining the route of The Armistice Day Poppy Parade to the Menin Gate Memorial in Ieper (Ypres) in 1995 inspired Lt. Colonel (Rtd) Graham Parker OBE, instigator of the Parade and a respected historian and Vice President of the Western Front Association, to develop the Poppy Umbrella.

Photo: Lt. Colonel (Rtd) Graham Parker OBE
Remembrance Day Ieper 2009
[Rembrella]

The Poppy Umbrella, resembling a Flanders poppy when open, is manufactured for Rembrella by Fultons, the largest supplier of quality umbrellas in the UK, and the holder of a Royal Warrant to Her Majesty The Queen.

The Rembrella products are premium gifts and in the UK and Europe have only been available for sale through registered charities of ex-Service and welfare organizations, or military and heritage museums, or educational associations and not-for-profit organizations and Rembrella’s on-line shop.

The Rembrella Poppy Umbrellas design was registered in Australia and in 2009 Rembrella appointed Families and Friends of the First AIF as its Australian importer. This came about after Lt. Colonel Parker and his family attended the 2007 ANZAC Day commemoration service at St Edith’s, Baverstock, Wiltshire where 29 Australian and 3 British soldiers are buried.

Photo: Lt. Colonel (Rtd) Graham Parker OBE
and his daughter Joanna Legg at the grave of Private Andrew Gibson AIF of Mackay Queensland, at St Edith’s Baverstock, Wiltshire UK on the anniversary of the Battle of Polygon Woods 26 September 2009.  [Rembrella]

 Andrew Gibson was a 39-year-old farmer from Mackay, Queensland when he enlisted in the AIF on 6th March 1916. He was the son of Andrew and Margaret Gibson and had been born in Stranraer, Wigtonshire in Scotland.

Private Gibson embarked with the 31st Infantry Battalion on 19th September aboard the HMAT Seang Choon from Brisbane. After a sea voyage of nearly three months Pte Gibson disembarked at Plymouth England on 9th December 1916 and was posted to the 8th Training Battalion located at Hurdcott Camp, on the Salisbury Plain. Three weeks later he was admitted to Fovant Military Hospital on 31st December 1916 where he died of broncho pneumonia on 7th January 1917 and buried at St Edith’s on 10th January.

Private Gibson was a widower and was survived by a son James and daughter Margaret both of Mackay. Andrew’s next of kin was his brother Robert Gibson of Fairleigh Estate, Mackay, Queensland.

Rembrella products are sold in Australia through organisations that commemorate the service and sacrifice of Australians in The Great War including the Australian War Memorial in Canberra, the National ANZAC Centre in Albany, the Anzac Memorial Sydney, the Queensland ANZAC Day Commemorative Committee and The Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne. More than 4,000 Rembrella products have been sold in Australia with sales benefiting these organisations and also contributing funding to Commemorations in Sydney for Fromelles Day and the Battles of 3rd Ypres as well towards the costs of headstones on unmarked graves of returned Diggers.

Professor the Hon. Dame Marie Bashir AD CVO at the Anzac Memorial for the Commemoration of the Battles of 3rd Ypres, 2017 [Rob Tuckwell Photography]
Headstones on previously unmarked graves of returned Diggers in Cornelian Bay Cemetery, Hobart [Tasmanian Headstone Project, 2017]

 

Rembrella poppy umbrellas can be purchased when you visit:

Rembrella poppy umbrellas can also be purchased on-line

FFFAIF members at the Remembrance Day Service at the Australian War Memorial in Canberra in 2010

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