Britain’s Princes William and Harry and Duchess Catherine planted ceramic poppies yesterday (05.08.14).
The royal trio visited the Tower of London to see the Blood Swept Lands And Seas Of Red art installation and set down their own flowers in the Tower’s moat, where 120,000 poppies are currently installed.
More will be added over the coming months until Armistice Day on November 11, when there will be 888,246 – one for each British and Commonwealth death in the First World War.
Before planting the poppies, the group joined artist Paul Cummins in climbing the Middle Tower to view the work from on high then walked through the whole exhibit accompanied by General Lord Dannatt, Constable of the Tower of London, and his wife Philippa.
William was heard telling the artist he thought the installation was "spectacular".
Mr. Cummins got the idea from a "living will" he found two years ago which had used the phrase in the exhibit’s title.
He added: "Each one represents someone who died in the First World War from Britain and the Commonwealth. I’m literally trying to represent people because a number is a number, but if you see it all like this it is a visual idea of how many people were there."
The poppies in the moat take three days to make each and are for sale online at £25 per flower.
After Remembrance ceremonies in November, the flowers – which are being installed by the artist and a team of 8,000 volunteers – will be posted to the buyers and profits donated to six service charities.
William, Harry and Catherine visit poppy artwork
