IOR/R/15/2/1559

Correspondence and other papers (order forms, promotional materials, magazines, receipts) relating to British Legion poppy appeal campaigns in Bahrain for the years 1945 to 1950. The file is a direct chronological continuation of ‘File 16/48 I Corr. re: Earl Haig’s Appeal Fund (Poppy Day)’ (IOR/R/15/2/1558).

The correspondence concerns orders for poppies and other British Legion materials, and collections carried out in Bahrain, usually organised by female members of the Bahrain expatriate community (including the wife of the Bahrain Petroleum Company’s (BAPCO) local representative, and the wives of the Political Resident in the Persian Gulf (Lieutenant-Colonel William Rupert Hay) and Adviser to the Government of Bahrain (Charles Dalrymple Belgrave). The file’s principal correspondents are: the Political Agent in Bahrain (Cornelius James Pelly, Lieutenant-Colonel Arnold Crawshaw Galloway); the British Legion (chiefly Captain B H R Cullin, Organising Secretary, and Captain R W Smith-Stewart, Director of Appeals); Lady Marjorie Lepel Belgrave, wife of Charles Dalrymple Belgrave; and Lady Sybil Ethel Hay, wife of Lieutenant-Colonel William Rupert Hay.

The file contains a range of printed promotional materials, published by the British Legion, including:

• copies, dating from 1947, of the British Legion magazine Poppy Post and Remembrancer (ff 70-73, ff 77-80, ff 82-85, ff 122-129);
• leaflets promoting Poppy Days (f 3, f 180-183), Remembrance Week (f 7), the Overseas Wreath Laying Service (ff 118-119), and the work of the British Legion (ff 108-109, ff 120-121).