The Queen joked that volunteers have “poppies coming out of your ears” as she viewed an incredible display of knitted flowers in Wiltshire yesterday. Camilla, 78, pinned the final poppy to the eye-catching exhibit, which features over 31,000 of the symbolic remembrance flowers cascading down St Batholomew’s Church tower.
The Peacock Women’s Institute (WI) launched the project at the start of the year, with the goal of creating a display of 10,000 knitted and crocheted poppies to mark the 80th anniversary of the end of the Second World War. The plea was heard across the globe, with over 31,000 poppies sent to them from schools, youth organisations, residential homes and businesses from across the UK and overseas.
Meeting volunteers and members of the WI, Camilla said the project was a “lovely idea” and agreed to attach the final poppy to complete a cascade of faux flowers from St Batholomew’s Church.
Addressing WI members, the Queen said: “It’s so lovely because it’s all the generations working together. You’ve got poppies coming out of your ears.”
Camilla laid a wreath at the church’s First World War memorial with a note reading: “In remembrance, Camilla R.”
Pippa Owen, secretary of the Peacock WI, said people had got involved as part of their own act of remembrance.
Maggie Bowden, a member of the WI, made Camilla a knitted wreath to display at her home in nearby Raybridge.
“It’s quite an honour, actually, she thanked me twice for the wreath,” Mrs Bowden said.
The Queen also visited Martingate Shopping Centre, where a dedicated Poppy Shop was opened to provide free knitting lessons and co-ordinate community involvement.
Remembrance events are particularly poignant for Camilla as her father, Major Bruce Shand, served in the Army for a decade and earned two Military Crosses.
He fought in the Second World War and won the Military Cross during the retreat to Dunkirk in 1940 and again at El Alamein in North Africa in 1942, when he was captured by retreating German forces.
