For London Poppy Day on Thursday 29 October, there will be events at some of Network Rail’s stations in London – Paddington, King’s Cross, Waterloo, Victoria and Liverpool Street – with music from military bands.

Elsewhere, Poppy Day fundraising is taking place at Bristol Temple Meads and Edinburgh Waverley the same day, in Birmingham New Street on Tuesday 3 November, and at Manchester Piccadilly on Wednesday 4 November.

The Royal British Legion Poppy Appeal continues to mark last year's centenary of the First World War, with a campaign ‘for the memory of the fallen and the future of the living’.

Many volunteers from Network Rail will be collecting for the Royal British Legion in stations. Adam Thackeray, a works delivery manager for London Liverpool Street, is one such volunteer. He served in the Royal Air Force as an electrical engineer for 22 years before joining Network Rail. 
 
I volunteered at [London Liverpool St Station] for Poppy Appeal last year and I’m doing the same again this year.

It’s essential that collections take place here and in other stations. The footfall is immense and, because the bands play each year, customers actually take the time to stop, listen and donate. It’s nice to see customers taking in the station instead of flying through it on their way to work or home.

Although I don’t know anyone who receives support from the Royal British Legion directly, you always hear stories of how the money is helping. It’s comforting to know that the support is there if it’s needed.

Adam Thackeray

Last year, 2,500 London Poppy Day volunteers raised £1.25m to fund welfare support for people currently serving, or who have previously served, in the British Armed Forces, and their families. 

Poppy Day is really important for remembering the fallen, not just from the World Wars but also from present wars.

What we do in the Army, we do for the country. I've lost friends in the Army, and that's what it means to me: remembering the people who I and others have lost.

Jack Goodwin, a portfolio manager for Network Rail, and a former lance corporal in the Royal Engineers 

The Poppy Appeal is a cause that’s important to many Network Rail employees. Stuart Frost, a rail plant support engineer, is chairman of the Royal British Legion’s Brigg & District branch in North Lincolnshire. He joined the Army in 1972 and left in 1997 as Warrant Officer Class One in the Royal Engineers.  

I joined the Royal British Legion because I and my wife felt we needed to do something after my wife’s cousin was killed during active service – he was in the 2nd Battalion the Rifles and had been in the Army for 23 years.

I’ve now been the chairman of my local branch for five years. We normally make around £22,000 for the Poppy Appeal, but we’ve had a very good start with the fundraising for our annual 10km race, so we’re hoping it will be even more this year.

The Royal British Legion offers both instant and long-term support. It’s very good at engaging with the right agencies and local authorities to make sure veterans get the support they need.

It does a lot of good that people just don’t know about – at the moment it’s working with other organisations on walk-in centres for those with post-traumatic stress disorder, for example. It’s as important now as it’s ever been.

Stuart Frost 
 

 Source: Network Rail