The red poppy, by contrast, was out in force as survivors of numerous conflicts gathered to watch him lay a small wooden cross among thousands of others at the memorial.

As the crowd walked among the crosses, planted in memory of those who fell in battles from the Somme to Basra, there was anger at criticism this week of the red poppy by the religious think-tank Ekklesia.

Servicemen and women, virtually all wearing the emblem, defended it against claims that a white flower was a more Christian symbol of remembrance. Warrant Officer Bob Bainbridge, of the Royal Navy, said that the think-tank had missed the point.

“[The white poppy] is not relevant to what the red poppy is: the first flower that grew on the battlefields of the First World War. These people come here every year as a pilgrimage. It’s full of tradition.”

His opinions were echoed among younger colleagues. Gemma Roberts, a 24-year-old writer in the Navy, said that the red poppy had as much significance for service personnel of her age as for older generations. She added: “It has been around for a long time and people recognise it. Why change it?”

White poppies have existed as a secular, pacifist alternative symbol since 1933.

Jan Melickar, co-ordinator of the Peace Pledge Union, which distributes the flowers, said: “This remembrance affair is to remember the British military dead, but there are a lot of others, including civilians, the hard-core victims of war. They were killed by the people we are remembering.”

This year the union, which has no links to Ekklesia, hopes to sell about 45,000 white poppies. The scale of its operation pales beside that of the Royal British Legion’s poppy factory at Richmond, southwest London, where a 30-strong team works all year to organise the annual distribution of 36 million poppies.

Outside Westminster Tube station, Joseph Newman, a 90-year-old Dunkirk veteran, was doing his best to sell most of them. “It’s silly that they’re against us, but it won’t make any difference,” he said. “It’s been going since the First World War and it will keep going.”

The charity, which was formed in 1921 and held the first Poppy Day on November 11 that year, raises most of its funds through the annual event. It said yesterday that it needed almost £400 million in donations over the next 15 years. It hopes to raise £26 million this autumn. Sue Leeth, the legion’s director of welfare, said that levels of public donation need to be sustained over the next 15 years at least to meet the demand from an ageing ex-Service community.

While the size of that community is expected to decrease from 10.17 million now to 7.55 million by 2020, the 85-plus age group of veterans will increase sharply, from 290,000 to 920,000 — up 220 per cent. Meanwhile, the 16-24 age group is also predicted to increase, by 26 per cent, to almost 375,000 by 2020.

Ms Freeth said that the legion could only “plug the cracks” in welfare provision for veterans, and called for more funding from the Government.

‘I won’t bow to flower fascists’

Jon Snow, the Channel 4 newsreader, has attacked the “poppy fascism” of those who insist that he should wear one on air, and insisted that he would not do so.

Snow also criticised the BBC’s decision to allow his fellow newsreader Fiona Bruce to wear a crucifix.

He said: “Fiona Bruce is to be allowed to continue to wear a crucifix, or a cross-shaped item of jewellery. I am allowed to wear unspeakably bright ties. But there’s a world of difference there. My ties are abstract. I do not believe in wearing anything that represents any kind of statement. I am begged to wear an Aids ribbon, a breast cancer ribbon, a Marie Curie flower . . . From the Red Cross to the RNIB they send me stuff to wear to raise awareness, and I don’t. In those terms I do not, and will not, wear a poppy.”

He added: “There is a rather unpleasant breed of poppy fascism out there — ‘He damn well must wear a poppy!’ I do, in my private life, but I am not going to wear it or any other symbol on air.”

His comments were criticised by Charles Plumridge, a 66-year-old Gulf War veteran from Romsey, Hampshire. He said: “Any questioning of the poppy can only cause anguish to the people who have worn it with pride over the years, the families of those who gave their lives and those people who are still doing so.”

Sarah Smith, the host of More4 News agreed that newscasters should not wear adornments. But she added: “They are so ubiquitous that not wearing one makes more of a statement than having one one. Many assume he [Snow] is taking a stand against militarism or the Iraq war.”

Stuart Gendall, of the Royal British Legion, said: “Jon Snow is completely entitled to his opinion.”

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