UK NEWS
SHOP GIRL TOLD TO REMOVE POPPY
TOKEN OF RESPECT: Shop worker Billie Graham with her poppy
By Mark Reynolds
A PATRIOTIC shop girl who lost ancestors in both world wars spoke of her “devastation” yesterday after being ordered to remove her poppy.
She says bosses called it “just a nice gesture and not the right dress code”.
Billie Graham, 23, always wears her commemorative poppy with pride in the run-up to Remembrance Sunday, as a mark of respect for her great-great-grandfather and great-great-uncle who died. Her great-grandfather also fought in both wars.
But 10 minutes into her first shift on the Christian Dior perfume counter in House of Fraser at the new Westfield shopping centre, west London, Miss Graham was stunned to be told to take it off.
“It was my first day and one of the managers came up to me and told me it was not part of the dress code,” she said. “I tried to protest but another boss, a woman, said that while it was ‘a nice gesture’, I could not wear it.
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This is England, and we should wear our poppies with pride.
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“I was very upset and would have argued more but when I looked round, none of the staff seemed to be wearing a poppy. I’m a student and needed the money so didn’t want to lose my job.
“I have always worn my poppy in previous stores and I just thought, ‘This isn’t right. This is England, and we should wear our poppies with pride’.
“I was devastated, and my mum and my nan were too when I told them. In our family, we are all very aware of Armistice Day and the sacrifices soldiers made. I was disgusted. It was shockingly unpatriotic.”
Miss Graham’s great-great-grandfather Joseph French was killed in action in France during the First World War. Her great-great-uncle Wallace Hall, a paratrooper and SAS hero, was shot dead in Holland in the Second World War.
The marketing student, of Notting Hill, west London, added: “It was so insulting – they acted like I was wearing the poppy as a fashion statement. It so clearly wasn’t.”
Last night a spokeswoman for Christian Dior said: “All Christian Dior employees have the right to wear a poppy and this is entirely a personal choice.”
A House of Fraser shopper pointed out: “It is quite strange to see all these staff so smartly presented and yet not one of them has a poppy on, unlike all the customers.”
House of Fraser added: “We encourage our staff to wear poppies.”
POPPY SALES
09.11.08, 4:39pm
I have just returned from a remembrance parade directly outside the unpatriotic branch of the Frazer store mentioned in the article and I am sure that all the crowd of five hundred, proudly wearing their poppies will boycott the shop as there is plenty of other stores that were prepared to display our national flag.
• Posted by: chasiboy • Report Comment
BILLIE.
08.11.08, 7:24pm
As someone else said wear your poppy and if they object tell them why it's worn and then refuse to remove it. I think the HoF will back pedal when it comes to the crunch. It is a disgrace that you should fear for your job over this. We're all behind you.
• Posted by: muggins • Report Comment
UNION JACK REFUSED DISPLAY BY NATIONAL STORE
07.11.08, 10:43pm
Interesting to read Mark Reynolds report on "Shop Girl Told To Remove Poppy "
Our Carlisle House of Fraser insisted that the "In House " poppy selling table remove its Union Jack flag being used as a table cloth . Following a challenge by replacing it the flag was removed by the store staff , the table removed and relocated with a unacceptably small unit in a renote corner .
How dare a National Coy . with Foreign National ownership have the audacity to to challenge our National Heritage in this manner ?
Your contributor " millieC"sums up the action to take by boycotting House of Fraser in her contribution of 8th inst .
Well said "millieC" Hit em where it hurts !!
DonaldJ
• Posted by: DonaldJ • Report Comment
UNION JACK REFUSED DISPLAY BY NATIONAL STORE
07.11.08, 10:41pm
Interesting to read Mark Reynolds report on "Shop Girl Told To Remove Poppy "
Our Carlisle House of Fraser insisted that the "In House " poppy selling table remove its Union Jack flag being used as a table cloth . Following a challenge by replacing it the flag was removed by the store staff , the table removed and relocated with a unacceptably small unit in a renote corner .
How dare a National Coy . with Foreign National ownership have the audacity to to challenge our National Heritage in this manner ?
Your contributor " millieC"sums up the action to take by boycotting House of Fraser in her contribution of 8th inst .
Well said "millieC" Hit em where it hurts !!
DonaldJ
• Posted by: DonaldJ • Report Comment
THE WHITE POPPY
07.11.08, 2:47pm
Remember in the 1908s there was a craze for a few months from some lefty organisation to wear white poppies as a symbol of "peace".
A few Champagne socialists from north London started to wear them but they were shunned by others and eventually, the whole idea fizzled out. The store owners should be held up as being as equally daft as the white poppy wearers.
• Posted by: Harveymiff • Report Comment
I WILL NEVER SHOP THERE AGAIN.
07.11.08, 10:44am
I advise everyone who cares about those brave people who died for us to do the same.
Disgusting.
• Posted by: millieC • Report Comment
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