A former Second World War nurse is planning to retire from selling poppies later this year after a remarkable 97 years of collecting for the appeal.

Rosemary Powell, 103, helped her mother sell poppies on Richmond Bridge for the Royal British Legion's first Poppy Appeal in 1921 when she was just six years old

The great-grandmother is now planning to hang up her collection tin and hand over to a new generation of fundraisers as she is "getting old".

Mrs Powell, a widow, said: "I sold poppies last year, maybe not as enthusiastically as previous years, but this year will probably be my last year of selling. I'm getting old now.

"Ever since the age of six, I've been selling poppies and I remember it all so well. Collecting has kept me going all these years."

Mrs Powell lived close to where poppies were made in Richmond, for the first Poppy Appeal and sold them on Richmond Bridge with her mother, Evelyn.

"The poppies were so popular I remember that we ran out in no time," she said.

"My mother was very good at making things with paper and she left me to sell the last few while she nipped over to this sort of general flower shop not far from bridge to buy some red crepe paper to make her own poppies for us to sell.

"She made these very simple little poppies and we soon sold out again.

"It was the very first one so it really caught the public's attention."

Mrs Powell's father, Charles Ashton James served with the 126th Baluchistan Infantry and was left wounded after being shot in the head during the Battle of the Somme.

She lost two godfathers and three uncles during the First World War.

Her first fiance, Robin Ellis, a commander in the Royal Navy, died in 1944 when the Lancaster bomber he was flying in crashed near Inverness.

And Mrs Powell's younger brother Peter, a major in the Army, died during the Second World War.

"Sadly war has had a significant impact on my life," she said.

"It's hard to imagine what they went through but my grandparents lost three of their children - with a fourth wounded - during World War One.

"Right from the beginning, people talked about the Poppy Appeal. It has always been a very important cause for me.

"We did it in memory of those men who were killed, for their sacrifice."