Modern Usage
Both versions of the song are part of the traditional music at Selkirk Common Riding which in part commemorates the loss at Flodden. Jean Elliot's version is known in the town as "The Liltin" and is played after the Casting of the Colours ceremony. Alison Cockburn's version is played as a march by the town band but is also the version more often sung; it is the version known in Selkirk as "The Flo'ers o' the Forest".
In late 1942, according to the late Duchess of Windsor's Memoir, The Duke of Windsor asked that it be played at the funeral of his brother, the Duke of Kent, who was (possibly suspiciously) killed in a plane crash in the Scottish Highlands. Apparently it was a personal favourite of Prince George, the Duke of Kent.
The song is heavily referenced in the novel Sunset Song by Lewis Grassic Gibbon.
The song is quoted at the beginning and end of the historical novel The Flowers of the Forest by Elizabeth Byrd, which culminates in the Battle of Flodden.
It is the official lament of the Canadian Forces, played to honour fallen soldiers.
The English folk-rock band Fairport Convention covered the song on their 1970 album Full House.
The tune was played by a lone piper at the funeral of singer songwriter Sandy Denny.
Scottish tenor Kenneth McKellar recorded a version of the song.
Scots/Australian singer-songwriter Eric Bogle refers to "Flowers of the Forest" in his song "No Man's Land", in which he muses over the grave of a World War I soldier, and wonders whether "Flowers of the Forest" was played at the soldier's burial.
Michael Nyman sped up and re-edited the song as part of the score of The Piano.
English musician Mike Oldfield covered the song on his 1996 album, Voyager.
The track 'Flowers of the Town' by the English folk band The Unthanks is based on this song but it laments the loss of young men in the First World War. The lyrics of this version are almost identical to the first of "Two Songs" by Cecil Day-Lewis.
In the short story "Flowers" by Robin Jenkins teacher Miss Laing calls the soldiers flowers - a reference to the song.
In 2007, Scottish singer Isla St Clair was invited to sing Flowers of the Forest at Tyne Cot Cemetery in Flanders, Belgium to commemorate the 90th anniversary of the Battle of Passchendaele, in the First World War. The ceremony was attended by Queen Elizabeth II and the Queen of the Belgians, as well as other European Heads of State and Commonwealth Representatives. She also recorded the lament in 1998, for the album When the Pipers Play and again in 2011, for the Scots Guards album From Helmand To Horse Guards.
It is standard practice in the British and Canadian military to use this tune to mark the death of a soldier in Afghanistan during the official memorial service.
Read more about this topic: Flowers Of The Forest
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