[6]  Her idea was for all World War I Allied countries to use artificial poppies, made by French widows and orphans, as an emblem for remembering those who gave their lives during the World War I and, at the same time, creating a method of raising funds to support the families of the fallen and those who had survived, thereafter.

Guérin was born Anna Alix Boulle on 3 February 1878 at Vallon (Vallon-Pont-d’Arc), France.

[15]  Whilst in Great Britain, Anna was presented with le médaille Officier de l’Instruction Publique by Paul Cambon, the French Ambassador to London.

Once the United States entered the war, Anna raised funds openly, on a public platform.

The French government created ‘La Ligue des enfants de France et d’Amérique’, with the poppy as its emblem.

The symbolism of the poppy was inspired by the poem In Flanders Fields by Lt. Col. John McCrae, a Canadian military surgeon.

In each state she visited, Anna Guérin set up American and French Children's League committees.

Membership subscriptions and fundraising events would provide some valuable funds, much needed for orphans in the devastated war-torn regions of France, on a regular basis.

Also in that month, Anna Guérin’s American and French Children’s League had to undergo an enforced change.

It was, to this end that, in October 1920, League President Hartley Burr Alexander, wrote to the Bureau’s Director.

The Bureau gave its approval but with certain caveats, one being that Anna’s American and French Children’s League should have a wider scope and be aligned to its Paris-based committee of La Ligue Americaine-Francaise des Enfants.

Even the US President got caught up with the muddle and the National Information Bureau issued a statement saying that only the new League had been endorsed to sell poppies, no other.

Herbert Shipman (Bishop Suffragan of the Diocese of New York); Maurice Leon (member of law firm Evarts, Choate, Sherman & Leon; writer; representative of the French Government during the War); George W. Burleigh (Judge Advocate-General of the New York National Guard); Bronson Batchelor (of Bronson Batchelor Inc., publicity agency); Roger B. Jenkins (officer of the Bronson Batchelor Inc. agency); Barry N. Smith (Head of the National Information Bureau); and Anna Guérin.

At the beginning of November 1921, Anna Guérin attended the next American Legion Convention, Kansas City, Missouri.

She had been personally invited but she also went to try and persuade the delegates from reneging on the poppy, as their memorial flower - in favour of the daisy.

[25][26][27]  On 4 July 1921, she spoke about her ‘Inter-Allied Poppy Day’ idea to men of the Canadian Great War Veterans’ Association (G.W.V.A.)

Anna handed the poppy mantle over to Captain James Learmonth Melville, M.C.,[29][30] who was Principal of the Vocational School for Disabled Soldiers.

They serve to commemorate those of the Royal Newfoundland Regiment who lost their lives on 1 July 1916 at Beaumont-Hamel, on the Somme.

The Legion was very sceptical and Anna Guérin’s credentials had to be checked out but, before September was out, the British had adopted the ‘Inter-Allied Poppy Day’ idea.

Anna Guérin was very rarely credited in the British newspapers and “widows and children of French soldiers” were sometimes mentioned but often the poppy makers were referred to as “peasants”.

At the 6th annual congress of the ‘Returned Sailors and Soldiers Imperial League of Australia’ in Brisbane (5 August 1921), it was declared that the decision was suggested by Canada.

Many New Zealand women remained “representatives” of Madame Guérin through those years and they gave talks at schools etc., promoting her idea.

For a few years, she ran a shop selling French antiques in New York – sister Juliette and friend Blanche managed it, whenever she was not in the United States.

For the first time in France, on 11 November 2021, a ceremony was organised in Aubigny-sur-Nère by the Office National des Anciens Combattants et Victimes de Guerre (ONACVG) and the local authorities, where a place was dedicated to the French Poppy Lady - 'Espace Anna Guérin'.

On 8 March 2022, at Vallon-Pont-d'Arc in the Ardèche, plaques were dedicated to Anna Boulle-Guérin in the town - at her place of birth and at her grave in the Protestant cemetery.

On 8 November 2024, at the Musée du Vin, 5 Square Charles Dickens, Paris (XVI°/16th arrondissement), France, a plaque was unveiled and dedicated to Anna Guérin who died at that address on 16 April 1961.

On 17 December 2024, Claude Vigoureux (ONACVG Director of Cher and historian) was welcomed at the Mairie of the XVI°/16th arrondissement of Paris.