'Grateful' Maidenhead Royal British Legion targets £50k Poppy Appeal total

The Maidenhead branch of the Royal British Legion hopes to reach £50,000 in donations as its annual poppy appeal gets underway this week.

During this fortnight before Remembrance Day, legion members and volunteers will be outside Marks and Spencer and inside Waitrose in the town centre with poppy boxes and collection tins.

Remembrance Sunday on November 10 will feature a service at the town hall at 11am.

Last year the Maidenhead branch raised £48,000, but branch secretary Ray Williams hopes they can improve that figure this year.

He said the appeal is ‘going well’, now that donations can be collected on card readers, and ‘there's a lot of people around who are very generous’.

“All the money that is made goes straight into looking after these people who have suffered on our behalf, and I think it's really important that people understand that,” Ray said.

“These days we don't have people forced to go into the services, they go into the services of their own free will. They're fighting on our behalf and it’s up to us to look after them when they come back.

“It is important we get across to the younger generation that this isn't just about what happened in World War Two or World War One, it's right up to date.”

Talking about their 40 volunteers, Ray added: “I can’t say how grateful we are to them. We couldn't do it without them it's as simple as that.”

Ray said the Legion does ‘pretty well’ and is ‘relatively well-supplied’ with volunteers but ‘could always do with more’.

Until Saturday, November 9, poppy collectors will be outside M&S from 9am to 5pm Monday to Saturday and 11am to 3pm on Sunday.

At Waitrose, collectors will be in store throughout their opening times.