In Ottawa, Lillian Freiman adopted the Annual poppy campaign fundraiser and the first Canadian poppies were made in her living room in 1921. The Freimans’ Victorian-style mansion, located at 149 Somerset Street West in Ottawa, became the home of the Ottawa Army Officers’ Mess in 1957.
She was influential in the 1919 creation of the Vetcraft Shops, which employed returning servicemen to make furniture and toys. In 1923, they took over the poppy making. She was a member of the National Poppy Advisory Committee and chaired Ottawa’s annual poppy campaign nearly every year until her death in 1940.
On December 29th, 1941 a tablet was unveiled by Major-General L.F. LaFleche, Associate Deputy Minister of National War Services at Trafalgar House the then - headquarters of the Ottawa branch of the Royal Canadian Legion, at 110 Argyle Street, Ottawa. The plaque was taken down in 1972 when the Legion offices were demolished and relocated to 100-1800 Bank Street, Ottawa. The plaque did not move with the Legion and there is no record of its whereabouts thereafter.
