With Remembrance Sunday approaching, West Ham United captain Jarrod Bowen, defender Maximilian Kilman and former player and Club ambassador Anton Ferdinand visited The Poppy Factory.
The visit the second year in succession that the Hammers have supported The Poppy Factory, where the Remembrance wreaths commemorating the nation's fallen are created by veterans.
Since 1922, The Poppy Factory has provided secure and supportive employment for hundreds of veterans, many with physical disabilities or mental health conditions resulting from their service. As well as its historic role making individual poppies, the charity produces around 100,000 wreaths each year, including the special wreaths laid at the Cenotaph by the Royal Family on Remembrance Sunday.
Many famous figures have toured The Poppy Factory in the past 102 years, including four visits over a span of six decades by Her Majesty, the late Queen Elizabeth II, and West Ham United became the first football club to pay a visit in 2023.
Bowen, Kilman and Ferdinand were shown around the factory by Royal wreath makers Peter Wills and Paul Hammerton – a West Ham fan himself – and collected the wreaths that will be laid at London Stadium today to commemorate all those lost in conflict at home and around the world, and in particular to remember the First World War service of the heroic West Ham Pals Battalion.
“Many years ago, West Ham fans put themselves forward to go and fight in the War and many of them didn’t come back, so now the West Ham Pals can be remembered and, for me personally, to visit The Poppy Factory as a West Ham fan, it means more than anything,” said Ferdinand.
The visit was covered by BBC’s The One Show, which you can watch by HERE.
Anyone can visit The Poppy Factory by booking tickets HERE. All proceeds from those visits go to support the vital work that the charity does supporting service veterans and their families into all kinds of employment, across England and Wales.
