Giant 80th anniversary poppy painted on meadow

For the second year in a row, a giant poppy has been painted on a meadow to support the Royal British Legion's annual appeal.

The 30 sq m (323 sq ft) creation can be seen on Riverside Meadow in Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire.

Drone operator and Poppy Appeal organiser Richard Pinches, who created the artwork, said he wanted to commemorate the 80th anniversary of D-Day.

"It makes me feel good to give back to the veterans," he said. "I'm very proud to have done it."

"I've incorporated the shape of the standard British Legion poppy, the two petals, kind of makes an eight and then I designed a big zero next to it to mark 80."

Mr Pinches said his father was a World War Two veteran who served in about 15 different countries, but mainly in North Africa.

He said: "My father was what they call a desert rat.

"He was eighth Army and he was very vocal about his time in the army and I grew up listening to his stories which was fantastic.

"Lot of relations of veterans I speak to don't have the same experience - if they were infantry, they tend to clam up and have a harder time talking about it.

"Some veterans never speak about their experiences but with my father it was the opposite."

He said his father went to war a "20-year-old young boy and came back a man, it defined him".

Mr Pinches said his father passed away in 2015 and since then he has got more involved with the British Legion Poppy Appeal.

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