Remembrance Day Trivia
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42 free Remembrance Day trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Sep 2026.
Remembrance Day falls on 11 November, the hour the guns fell silent in 1918. These 42 questions cover the armistice itself, the poppy and the poem that inspired it, the two-minute silence that began in Cape Town, the Cenotaph in Whitehall and the way Canada, Australia, the UK and others mark the day. The set runs from easy (what colour is the poppy?) to the details that catch out even keen history buffs: who first proposed the silence, why New Zealand wears poppies in April, and which King launched the first Armistice Day. Every answer is sourced so the quiz is safe for classrooms, Legion branches and quiz nights.
30 of 42 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01In 2011, which football body first refused, then let England's players wear poppies on black armbands?
FIFA
FIFA bans political, religious or commercial messages on shirts, and it relented only after Prince William and Prime Minister David Cameron wrote to protest.
Q 02Which country celebrates 11 November as its National Independence Day?
Poland
Poland had been carved up by neighbouring empires in the late 18th century, and it re-emerged as a sovereign state as the First World War ended.
Q 03In Barbados, the Remembrance Sunday parade is held at which Bridgetown site?
National Heroes' Square
National Heroes' Square held a bronze statue of Admiral Nelson from 1813 until November 2020, when Barbados removed it from the heart of Bridgetown.
Q 04Which 1919 agreement signed on 28 June formally ended the First World War?
Treaty of Versailles
The Treaty of Versailles made Germany accept responsibility for the war's damage and pay reparations, and stripped it of its overseas colonies.
Q 05Which king hosted the banquet that opened the first 11 November commemoration in 1919?
George V
George V also asked his people, in a message published days before, to fall silent for two minutes at 11 a.m. on 11 November 1919.
Q 06Which country marks 11 November as Veterans Day rather than Remembrance Day?
United States
The United States renamed Armistice Day as Veterans Day in 1954, after World War II and Korea, so that the day would honour American veterans of all wars.
Q 07Which bugle call traditionally opens the period of silence at a Service of Remembrance?
Last Post
Last Post was sounded at the end of the military day, so at remembrance ceremonies it symbolises death.
Q 08The word cenotaph comes from Greek meaning what?
Empty tomb
Empty tomb suits Britain's war memorials: an early wartime policy forbade bringing the dead home, so most families had no nearby grave to visit.
Q 09Who designed the Cenotaph on Whitehall in London?
Edwin Lutyens
Edwin Lutyens rapidly designed a temporary wood-and-plaster version for July 1919's Peace Celebrations, and after more than a million people visited in a week it was rebuilt to last.
Q 10What material is the permanent Whitehall Cenotaph built from?
Portland stone
Portland stone was cut with subtle curves, so the Cenotaph's seemingly straight sides actually taper inwards.
Q 11The 1920 unveiling of the Cenotaph coincided with the burial of whom in Westminster Abbey?
The Unknown Warrior
The Unknown Warrior was chosen from bodies exhumed across the Western Front's battle areas and buried 'among the kings' to represent the Empire's dead.
Q 12Which Canadian physician wrote the poem "In Flanders Fields"?
John McCrae
John McCrae's poem was soon used to raise money and recruit soldiers, and it became known throughout the English-speaking world.
Q 13"In Flanders Fields" was first published in which London magazine?
Punch
Punch printed it anonymously on 8 December 1915, after The Spectator had rejected it, and only later credited its author.
Q 21What do the French wear in place of the poppy to honour France's war dead?
Bleuet de France
Bleuet de France, the cornflower, recalls the young recruits nicknamed 'bleuets' for their horizon-blue uniforms.
Q 22Why were New Zealand's first remembrance poppies sold months after 11 November 1921?
Their ship arrived too late
Their ship arrived too late for Armistice Day, so the poppies were sold at the next commemoration instead, and New Zealand's Poppy Day kept that later date.
Q 23Which city's daily wartime pause in 1918 inspired the two-minute silence?
Cape Town
Cape Town's daily pause, signalled by the noon gun on Signal Hill, first lasted three minutes in May 1918 before it was shortened to two.
Q 14Alexis Helmer, whose burial inspired "In Flanders Fields", was killed in which 1915 battle?
Second Ypres
Second Ypres, which began on 22 April 1915, saw Germany's first mass use of poison gas on the Western Front.
Q 15Which NHL team displays the "throw the torch" line from "In Flanders Fields" in its dressing room?
Montreal Canadiens
Montreal Canadiens adopted the poem's torch lines as the club motto and display them on the wall of the players' dressing room.
Q 16Which teacher vowed to always wear a red poppy after reading "In Flanders Fields"?
Moina Michael
Moina Michael campaigned to sell silk poppies for disabled veterans, and her efforts led the American Legion Auxiliary to adopt the poppy as a remembrance symbol.
Q 17Which Frenchwoman, "The Poppy Lady from France", organised the first Poppy Days?
Anna Guérin
Anna Guérin had poppies made by French widows and orphans and sold them to raise money for children in France's war-ravaged regions.
Q 18Which poppy colour did Britain's Women's Co-operative Guild introduce in 1933?
White
White poppies are meant to remember all victims of war and to promote peace, and today they are distributed by the Peace Pledge Union.
Q 19In which English town is the Royal British Legion's Poppy Factory?
Richmond
Richmond's Poppy Factory was set up in the 1920s so that disabled ex-servicemen could earn a living making poppies for the Poppy Appeal.
Q 20Scottish poppies are made at a factory in which city?
Edinburgh
Edinburgh's Lady Haig's Poppy Factory was founded in 1926 by Countess Haig, wife of Field Marshal Douglas Haig, to give work to disabled veterans.
Q 24Which victims of war does the purple remembrance poppy commemorate?
Animals
Animals are what the purple poppy honours, and Animal Aid later replaced it with an all-year badge, arguing that animals in war are victims, not heroes.
Q 25Which Irish footballer began declining to wear a shirt poppy in 2012, citing Bloody Sunday in Derry?
James McClean
James McClean received death threats after declining to wear the poppy, which he said would disrespect those killed on Bloody Sunday in his hometown.
Q 26Where is Canada's federal Remembrance Day ceremony held?
War Memorial, Ottawa
War Memorial, Ottawa hosts the national ceremony; built for the First World War dead, the memorial was rededicated in 2014 to all Canadians who died in service.
Q 27Where does the Royal Canadian Legion say to wear the poppy?
Over the heart
Over the heart, on the left side, is the Legion's guidance, and the Legion holds a trademark on the poppy to protect the symbol of its fundraising campaign.
Q 28Which day has largely eclipsed Remembrance Day as Australia's main war commemoration?
Anzac Day
Anzac Day marks the first major action of Australian and New Zealand forces in the First World War, the 1915 Gallipoli campaign, and is a public holiday in every state.
Q 29Who wrote "For the Fallen", the source of the Ode of Remembrance?
Laurence Binyon
Laurence Binyon later worked as an orderly in a military hospital in France, and the experience shaped his war poems.
Q 30In which newspaper was "For the Fallen" first published?
The Times
The Times printed the poem in September 1914, written to honour the British Expeditionary Force's first casualties after the retreat from Mons.