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Meet the poppy seller who has clocked up 50 years

BBC An older man standing outside a memorial garden with a poppy on his blue fleece jacket and the red string holding his tray of poppies around his neckBBC
Poppy seller Roger Brown's support for the appeal goes back to his childhood

A poppy seller who said he would help out with the appeal in a Leicestershire town has marked a half century of supporting the Royal British Legion.

Roger Brown first supported collections in Market Harborough as a child with his grandfather Frank Wilkinson, who had served in World War One.

He then began selling annually to help his father John Brown, a World War Two veteran, and in 2024 he hits 50 years of service to the branch.

He said: "I said 'OK I'll help', and 50 years later I'm still doing it."

He said: "It must have been the end of the 1950s when I started with my granddad. We used to stand up the High Street.

"He was secretary of the Harborough branch so we got involved like that.

"Then moving on a few years, my father was branch secretary and standard bearer on the Leicestershire executive committee and he said he wanted a bit of help with the poppies."

Supplied A black and white photograph of man sat in a three-piece suit, with a side parting in his hair, and a woman in a white shirt and long black dress stood behind his shoulder, with her hand resting on himSupplied
Mr Brown's grandmother lost her first husband, James West, at the Battle of the Somme

Mr Brown himself did not pursue a military career, instead working as a factory manager in the textile industry, but his family links with the global conflicts run deep, and he has a collection of medals and letters belonging to his relatives.

He said: "My grandmother's first husband was killed in the First World War. She didn't know any information apart from letters from a German officer to say that they had found his body and stopped his unit, buried him and said prayers, and then the unit moved on."

So far this year, Mr Brown has raised more than £800 for the charity and he is hoping to more than match last year's tally of £1,500.

A woman wearing two poppies and a poppy lanyard stood smiling in a town centre
"Without the volunteers we simply don't have a poppy appeal," said appeal manager Helen Fairhead

Stewart Harrison, of the Royal British Legion Market Harborough, said: "He's really been the backbone of the collecting.

"He's always here, and it is rare to see somebody with Roger's history - 50 years is a long time."

Helen Fairhead, Poppy Appeal manager for Leicestershire and Rutland, said: "People like Roger and all the hundreds of volunteers that we have across the counties and the thousands across the country, they're just magnificent.

"Without the volunteers we simply don't have a poppy appeal."

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