Forces sweetheart Dame Vera Lynn has joined soprano singer Hayley Westenra for an emotional rendition of the classic wartime song We'll Meet Again to launch the Royal British Legion's Poppy Appeal.
The pair held hands to sing in front of the crowd in London's Horse Guards Parade, accompanied by the Regimental Band of the Irish Guards and flanked by four troopers from the Queen's Life Guards in full state ceremonial regalia.
This year's appeal, which aims to raise £31 million, urges people to support troops wounded in Afghanistan and the families of those killed by wearing a poppy.
It focuses on the need to help the current generation of servicemen and women who have fought in the war-torn country.
For the first time the poster campaign features the image of a coffin being repatriated from Afghanistan.
Dame Vera, 92, said: "Thank you all for coming here today to be with us as we launch the poppy appeal. While we are doing this I want you all to remember our boys over there in Afghanistan and not forgetting our boys in the last conflict. Thank you all for coming and do spare a moment of peace and quiet to remember and wish our boys safely back home. Thank you."
This year's appeal is accompanied by a sobering poster campaign featuring a young war widow and a Royal Marine double amputee.
Among those attending Thursday's launch was Elizabeth Cross widow Hester Wright, 22, of Mansfield, Nottinghamshire, who features on the posters with her six-year-old son Josh. Her late husband Damian Wright, of the 2nd Battalion The Mercian Regiment, died in a roadside explosion in Afghanistan in 2007, aged 23.
The pair have received financial help from the Royal British Legion, which has helped pay off debts, bought household goods and a school uniform for Josh, and assisted in paying for a holiday for them.
She said: "It's been a great comfort. It's like a great weight has been lifted from us, knowing that someone can help us out. I'm not quite sure how we would have coped without them, to be honest."
