George Arthur Howson Major George Arthur Howson MC ( 7 September 1886 – 28 November 1936 ) was an officer in the British Army in the First World War , and later the founder and chairman of the Royal British Legion Poppy Factory . Early life . Howson was the youngest child of George John Howson , rector of Overton - on - Dee ( then in Flintshire ) . He was the descendant of Anglican clergymen through both parents : his paternal grandfather ( John Howson ) was Dean of Chester , and his maternal great - grandfather ( Thomas Dealtry ) was Bishop of Madras . He was christened with a second forename , Arthur , but he disliked it , and never used it . Howson was educated at Loretto School , Musselburgh , and studied at Heriot - Watt College in Edinburgh . After university , through his father ' s connections , he was found a position as assistant manager at a rubber estate in Borneo in 1909 , where he contracted malaria , dysentery , and jaundice . War service . Howson was on sick leave in England in 1914 when the First World War broke out . He was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the 11th ( Service ) Battalion of the Hampshire Regiment in September 1914 . He served on the Western Front throughout the war , from 1914 to 1918 . Having been promoted to captain , he was awarded the Military Cross for his actions at Pilckem Ridge in the Battle of Passchendaele on 31 July 1917 , where , despite receiving a shrapnel wound , he encouraged his unit to continue repairing a road under shellfire . He was promoted to major , and finally retired from the army in May 1920 . Post - war career . Howson married Jessie Gibson in September 1918 . She was the daughter of William Gibson , the Australian owner of the Foy & Gibson department stores . The newly married couple quickly became wealthy after William Gibson died in November 1918 . His eldest child , and only son , Peter Howson later became a government minister in Australia . Howson was the founding chairman of the Disabled Society in 1920 , with Jack Cohen MP . After the first Poppy Appeal in 1921 used artificial poppies imported from France by Madame Anna Guérin , the British Legion commissioned the Disabled Society to make poppies in England for the 1922 appeal . Howson started with a workforce of five disabled ex - servicemen at a former collar factory on the Old Kent Road in June 1922 . The number of employees rapidly increased to over 40 , and they made a million poppies within two months . The Prince of Wales ( later Edward VIII ) visited the Poppy Factory in November 1924 . The factory made 27 million poppies that year . Most of the employees were disabled , and by then there was a long waiting list for prospective employees . The Disabled Society merged with the British Legion in 1925 , and the Poppy Factory became a company limited by guarantee , with Howson as chairman . The factory moved to Richmond , Surrey in 1926 , to the premises of an old brewery bought using money donated by Howson . Howson instituted the Field of Remembrance at Westminster Abbey in 1928 , and the factory started to make remembrance cross es and wreaths . Howson lived at Hambleden , near Henley - on - Thames , with a town house in Kensington . He died of cancer of the pancreas . He was buried at Hambleden , with the funeral service conducted by his father , by then an archdeacon and canon emeritus of Liverpool Cathedral . He was survived by his wife and their four children .