A GROUP of cadets from a Basingstoke school paid their own tribute to servicemen and women who have lost their lives in conflict by planting poppies at a national display.

Fifteen cadets from The Vyne Community School, in South View, Basingstoke, travelled up to the Tower of London on Friday, October 31 to help plant poppies at the “Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red” art installation to mark the centenary of the outbreak of World War One.

Ceramic artist Paul Cummins and stage designer Tom Piper created the installation which saw 888,246 ceramic poppies fill the Tower’s famous moat with each poppy representing a British military fatality during the First World War.

Each poppy, priced at £25, has been sold with all the proceeds being shared between the Royal British Legion, Confederation of Service Charities (COBSEO), Combat Stress, Coming Home, Help for Heroes and SSAFA (formerly the Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Families Association).

The cadets from the school, in Vyne Road, paid a contribution of £5 each which will be donated to the Royal British Legion.

Crissy Humphreys, language resource assistant at the school, who also served in the Royal Navy, told The Gazette: “It was a very proud moment. The cadets were very moved by it – they really got the full impact of it and were really humbled by it.

“We wanted to buy a poppy but they were all sold out.”