WHEN the country stands in silence for two minutes tomorrow - as it has done every year for the past 85 years - war veterans young and old will remember friends and colleagues who lost their lives in battle.

The image associated with Remembrance Day is one of elderly gentlemen dignified and proud, dressed in their best suits and displaying the medals they fought so bravely to obtain.

But with battle still raging in Iraq, and the recent loss of four Black Watch soldiers at Camp Dogwood, thoughts this year will undoubtedly be with the families of those servicemen and women still deployed in the Gulf. The Royal British Legion exists to support all service families from the survivors of the First Wolrd War trenches to the relatives of those currently serving in the armed forces.

Inspired by the John McCrae poem Flanders' Field, the inaugural Poppy Day was held on November, 11 1921, although the act of observing the two-minute silence began two years earlier, exactly 12 months after the Great War ended.

Through the Poppy Appeal, the Legion raises millions of pounds every year to protect the welfare, interests and memory of those servicemen and women, their families and dependants - some 11 million people.

More than 700,000 Commonwealth servicemen lost their lives in the First World War with another two million wounded.

Civilian casualties compounded figures in the Second Wolrd War. More than 60,000 killed during the Blitz in addition to the 250,000 military personnel.

And since 1945 conflicts in such places as Korea, Malaya, Palestine and the Falklands have resulted in more than 12,000 serving Brits being killed or injured while the death toll during the current Iraq conflict now stands at more than 70.

Last year the Legion spent £54m on its work. Almost half of that amount was raised through the Poppy Appeal.

Deserts may have replaced poppy fields in the imagery but the cause remains the same.

REMEMBRANCE DAY SPECIAL: See the Review section of today's Daily Echo.