An employee who works for South Western Railway has been busy promoting the Poppy Appeal ahead of Remembrance Day.

Manoj Bhardwaj is a Station Manager at Ascot. He has decorated  Virginia Water, Ascot, Bracknell, Woking, Sunningdale, Staines and Martins Heron stations with Paper Poppies.

Local school children created the artwork.

The Royal British Legion has previously commended Manoj as a “True Friend”. This is after he committed to decorating dozens of stations with giant poppies across the region.

What did they say?

Manoj said: “I wanted to help raise awareness of the Poppy Appeal. That is why I involved local schools to help decorate our stations with poppies. The children have been amazing with their creativity and their artwork is brilliant. We’ve had some really positive feedback from passengers passing through the stations already and hope to raise lots of money for the Royal British Legion as a result.”

Ms Samantha Sawyer, Headmistress at Staines Prep school, said: “The moment we heard of this opportunity to promote the Poppy Appeal we contacted Mr Bhardwaj to see how we could help. It has been a privilege to be involved in this community project. It is great to see our artwork at the local station, and I hope others can see what the poppies mean too,” said one Year 6 pupil from the school.

Alan Penlington, Customer Experience Director for South Western Railway, said: “Manoj and his team, local schools and our customers have done a great job decorating stations with poppies to help raise awareness of the Poppy Appeal and Remembrance Sunday commemorations. We will also be observing a two silence at our stations across the network on Armistice Day and Remembrance Sunday.”