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Trains carry hundreds of poppy wreaths to memorial

GWR Poppy wreaths laid below a statue of a man readingGWR
The commemorative wreaths have been collected from communities across the GWR network

Trains heading to London Paddington on Monday will be carrying hundreds of poppy wreaths to the station's war memorial ahead of a Remembrance Day service.

The wreaths will be placed on early morning and overnight GWR services at 90 stations along the route, including parts of Bristol, Somerset, Gloucestershire, Wiltshire, Devon and Cornwall.

Upon arrival at Paddington, they will be laid at the memorial on Platform 1 ahead of a service at 10:45 GMT.

The station will also be hosting a display of 22,442 cascading poppy petals recycled from wreaths collected during previous ceremonies.

The poppies will be put on trains by Royal National Lifeboat Institution [RNLI] volunteers, including many former service personnel.

The charity is this year its 200th year.

RNLI military veterans Simon Jeffery, coxswain at Plymouth lifeboat station, and Tony Rendle, mechanic at Penlee lifeboat station, will travel with the wreaths to attend the service at Paddington.

They will be joined by RNLI education and water safety volunteer Gaynor Williams, who organised a knitathon to create a large knitted poppy wreath.

Phil Monckton Six people in yellow coats and three in darker jackets. A woman and a man are each holding a poppy wreath. They are standing on a platform next to the Totnes Castle sleeper train.Phil Monckton
Volunteers will place the wreaths on trains at 90 stations on Monday morning

Among those attending the service will be Margot Billinge, daughter of D-Day veteran and Normandy Memorial Trust fundraising hero Harry Billinge MBE, who passed away in 2022.

Ms Billinge will travel from her home in St Austell, Cornwall, to greet the train named in honour of her father as it arrives into Platform 1.

GWR's operations director, Richard Rowland, said "it promises to be another poignant occasion at London Paddington".

The RNLI's chief executive Peter Sparkes said the charity was "deeply honoured" to be involved this year.

"The wreaths placed onboard will represent our RNLI communities who save lives at sea, honouring those crew who have made the ultimate sacrifice over the past 200 years of the RNLI, including World War One and Two", he said.

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