First World War Quotation Competition – winners are announced
Winners of the First World War Quotation Competition have been announced.
In the UK, one of the most memorable images from last year’s commemorations marking 100 years since the start of the First World War was the sight of 888,246 ceramic poppies encircling the Tower of London – each poppy representing a British or colonial soldier killed in the war. The spectacular display was enormously popular – visited by over 5 million people. The installation has now been dismantled and the poppies have been sold, raising millions of pounds for charity.
Here at the British Embassy in Moscow, we too have been marking the centenary. Last year we ran a competition inviting people to nominate quotations from British and Russian literature which would be engraved on a WW1 memorial. The winners were to receive one of the now famous Tower of London poppies, each of which was hand-made using techniques used by potters at the time of the war. The response to our competition was overwhelming with suggestions coming in from across Russia. To help us make the final choice, we invited a number of distinguished guests to act as jury.
We can now announce the nine winners, each of whom will be receiving a poppy. Congratulations go to Elena Petrova, Daria Smirnova, Alexander Fenin, Turgut Ismailov, Yulia Svetonosova, Maria Krechetova, Natalia Zhukova and Kristina Prokhorenko!
The quotations will be revealed later in the year when the memorial is unveiled.