This Remembrance Sunday, acclaimed actor Sir Mark Rylance will speak at the national white poppy ceremony in London.

The event, the National Alternative Remembrance Ceremony, will focus on the catastrophic loss of life in wars over the past year. The number of civilian deaths worldwide jumped by 40% in 2024 and has been increasing for three years running, due to the violence in Gaza, Ukraine and other war zones worldwide. The death toll is especially acute among children, who are being killed in unprecedented numbers, according to UN Human Rights.

Mark Rylance, who has won an Oscar and multiple BAFTAs, said that Remembrance Sunday should serve as a moment to "refocus our every effort to avert war". He said that civilians should be acknowledged alongside members of the armed forces, stating that it is "an offence not to remember their suffering".

White poppies, which have been worn since 1933, stand for remembrance of all victims of war, both civilian and military, as well as opposition to war and a commitment to peace.

By contrast, red poppies symbolise remembrance for British and allied armed forces personnel, according to the Royal British Legion who promote them.

Explaining his reasons for weaing a white poppy, Mark Rylance said: "I have always deeply admired and taken part in the white poppy remembrance of both civilian and military casualties of war. Civilians now far outnumber the tragic military casualties. I do not understand the white poppy to be in any way an opposition to the red poppy worn in remembrance of military casualties. Unfortunately wars are fought with and against civilians today and I consider it an offence not to remember their suffering."

The National Alternative Remembrance Ceremony is organised every year by the Peace Pledge Union (PPU), the UK's leading pacifist organisation, which campaigns for nonviolent approaches to conflict and against all forms of militarism.

Mark Rylance, who is a PPU member, continued: "I also deeply respect the origin and longevity of The Peace Pledge Union's campaign, created by the Co-operative Women’s Guild in the aftermath of WW1, when our brave ancestors were promised it would be the war to end all wars. These suffering women, many of them grieving the loss of husbands, brothers, sons, fathers, also deserve our respect and remembrance."

He added: "Remembrance Day should be a day to remember and grieve the great losses caused by war, but it should also be a day to refocus our every effort to avert war with all our tools of peaceful reconciliation of conflict. Too often in my life, Remembrance Day seems a kind of shoulder shrug that war is inevitable. I do not believe it is.”

The event on Remembrance Sunday will coincide with the launch of 'Memorial 2025', a new online memorial project by Every Casualty Counts (ECC), telling the stories of over one hundred civilians killed in war over the past year. 

Rachel Taylor, a representative of ECC who will also speak at the ceremony, said: "Every life lost to war is a tragedy and should be remembered. But remembering those who died in wars of the past is a hollow act if we don’t also recognise the victims of war today. That is why we are launching the Memorial 2025 project, which brings together the stories of ordinary people killed in wars around the world over the previous year."

White poppies are worn by thousands of people around the UK and beyond in the run up to Remembrance Day every year. They can be bought online from the Peace Pledge Union, or from a growing number of shops, cafes and other outlets.

As well as the National Alternative Remembrance Ceremony, there will be many alternative Remembrance ceremonies featuring white poppies elsewhere in the UK. In a growing number of towns and cities, white poppies are now also included in official ceremonies.