Article: Poppies fill the sky as West war veteran Harry launches appeal ; The last surviving British soldier to fight in the trenches of World War I joined Navy personnel yesterday to launch the Royal British Legion Poppy Appeal.

The last surviving British soldier to fight in the trenches of World War I joined Navy personnel yesterday to launch the Royal British Legion Poppy Appeal.

West hero Harry Patch, 110, opened the appeal as the Legion revealed they have seen the number of young serviceman needing their help more than double in the past year.

Mr Patch, who lives in a care home in Wells, is Britain's last Tommy.

He is the second oldest person in Britain and is the last surviving British soldier to have served in the third battle of Ypres, the battle of Passchendaele, in which more than 70,000 British troops died.

Yesterday, he was joined by Falklands War veteran Simon Weston OBE on board HMS Somerset for a ...

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