Chiswick-Based Longest Serving Poppy Collector Given MBE

Rosemary Powell's epic service for Royal British Legion honoured

Rosemary Powell with Nick Fleming a beneficiary of her efforts. Picture: PA/Royal British Legion

A Chiswick woman, who is believed to be the longest serving Poppy collector in Britain, has been awarded an MBE in the Queen's Birthday Honours list.

The recognition for Rosemary Powell's service to the Royal British Legion comes just a week after she announced that she would be finally hanging up her collecting tin aged 103.

She has been selling poppies since the first ever Poppy Appeal in 1921 when she collected as a six-year-old girl alongside her mother, Evelyn James, on Richmond Bridge.

After supporting the Royal British Legion for over 97 years, the 2018 appeal will be her last when she sells poppies to her friends in her Chiswick care home. Before moving to the home Rosemary sold poppies at Kings Mall shopping centre in Hammersmith in 2015 and 2016 and other areas of London prior to that.

Announcing her retirement, Rosemary said, “I sold poppies last year – maybe not as enthusiastically as previous years – but this year will probably be my last year of selling. I'm getting old now.

“Ever since the age of six, I've been selling poppies and I remember it all so well. It just so happened that we lived down the road from where the poppies were made [in Petersham, Richmond]. We became aware that that was happening locally. It was easy to get them.”

Her commitment to the Royal British Legion was partly inspired by having a number of family members die in service including her first fiancé Robin Ellis whose Lancaster bomber crashed the day before their engagement was due to be officially announced in 1944. She also lost her two godfathers (both of whom served in the Army) and three uncles during WW1. Her father (also in the Army – 126 Balluchi and Indian Army Regiment) was badly injured in the Battle of the Somme (he was shot in the head and treated in a field hospital). He later went on to serve in Afghanistan. Her younger brother, Peter, a Major in the Army, died during WW2. He contracted malaria and died in hospital. He had previously been awarded the Military Cross saving his troops from being pinned down from a machine gun post.

Rosemary Collecting in Kings Mall Hammersmith

Rosemary was a nurse during WW2. She trained up as a VAD (Voluntary Aid Detachment – providing civilian nursing to the military – trained by The Red Cross) nurse and went on to train at St Thomas' Hospital, becoming a ‘Nightingale' nurse

The impact of war on her own family meant that she felt compelled to raise funds for those in need. She said, “Ever since I was born there have been soldiers around me. Whether it be family members, friends or even strangers. Sadly war has had a significant impact on my life.”

Emma Cannings, The Royal British Legion's Director of Membership and Volunteers, said, “Rosemary is an incredible woman who has given so many years of her life in support of the Legion, and the Armed Forces community.

“Her volunteering effort has been nothing short of phenomenal, and we are incredibly thankful for her support over the generations. Our volunteers are very much the lifeblood of the Poppy Appeal and they contribute enormously to the charity's year-round through a variety of roles.”

June 9, 2018