A colonel who saw 13 of his soldiers killed during one tour of Afghanistan has stressed the importance of the poppy appeal in the wake of the row over England footballers wearing them.
Colonel Nick Kitson, who commanded 3rd Battalion The Rifles in Sangin, Helmand province, spoke as servicemen and women past and present joined the Duke of Edinburgh and forces families at the Field of Remembrance at Westminster Abbey to remember Britain's war dead.
He said: "One of our riflemen who was killed had a young daughter at home.
"She and her mother were the main carers for his parents and soon after he died they discovered the daughter had cerebral palsy.
"She was desperate for a bicycle, but it had to be specially adapted.
"With charitable donations, particularly from the poppy appeal, she got a bike and the pair were helped in looking after the rifleman's parents."
Philip opened the 83rd Field of Remembrance in a short ceremony which included a two-minute silence.
On Wednesday, football's international governing body, Fifa, lifted a ban on England players wearing poppies in Saturday's friendly match with Spain after the Duke of Cambridge stepped in.
But one Second World War veteran at Westminster Abbey expressed his anger over the row.
Former Warrant Officer Daniel Donaghey, 85, from Belfast, said: "I am disgusted. Poppies are respected all over the world - it isn't just Britain that recognises them. Where did the idea come from that they could be offensive?"
