Longest-serving poppy seller tells of ‘wonderful’ honour from Queen
BRITAIN’S LONGEST-SERVING poppy seller has described her MBE for decades of charity service as “wonderful”.
Rosemary Powell, 103, was surrounded by family and celebrated with a glass of champagne after she was presented with the honour.
The great-grandmother, from London, was included in this year’s Queen’s Birthday Honours List for voluntary service to the Royal British Legion Poppy Appeal, having spent 97 years collecting for the charity.
Inspecting the medal during a short ceremony at her west London nursing home, she said: “Isn’t it wonderful?”
Mrs Powell, who sat in a wheelchair draped in a poppypatterned blanket, was handed the MBE on behalf of the Queen by the Vice Lord-Lieutenant of Greater London, Colonel Jane Davis.
Her sons Antony, Giles and Nicolas, as well as granddaughters Emma and Rachel Powell and Celia Speller, attended the ceremony at St Mary’s Convent and Nursing Home in Chiswick on Monday.
Giles, speaking on behalf of his mother and the family, said: “The presentation of the MBE has been one of the biggest moments in her life – and mum has lived a very full life. It’s significant in what it represents in terms of both her loyalty and her commitment. She raised money for all those years due to the impact war had on her own family.”
She helped her mother Evelyn sell poppies on Richmond Bridge for the Royal British Legion’s first Poppy Appeal in 1921, aged six.
Her father Charles Ashton James served with the 126th Baluchistan Infantry and was wounded after being shot in the head in the Battle of the Somme.
It has been one of the biggest moments in her life – and she’s had a full life. Rosemary Powell’s son Giles, speaking on behalf of his mother