Veteran poppy seller returns

Ex-Royal Corps of Signals and Royal Welsh Regiment serviceman Gordon Baker and his wife Sonia will be back on familiar turf, when they once again set up stall at Queens Arcade.

Gordon and Sonia have been selling poppies 30 years, the last 15 of which at Queens Arcade and will be back in the Centre in the week before Remembrance Sunday as usual.

Gordon considers himself lucky to have just missed the Second World War, having first joined the Air Force and then the Territorial Army with the Signals.  He then decided to join the forces as a regular soldier and saw service in Germany, Denmark and UK Land Forces.

He says “The Royal British Legion’s annual Poppy Appeal is close to our heart and we do this every year by kind permission of the Managers of Queens Arcade who have been very good to us along with their staff.”

Gordon is expecting the shoppers visiting Cardiff to be as generous as ever and hopes that they will be able to equal the £1000 raised last year in just three days at the Centre.

Centre Manager Nick Beckett is looking forward to welcoming Gordon and Sonia back to the Centre, “It is imperative that we remember and honour the sacrifices of our forebears who died in the First and Second World Wars both at home and abroad, especially as so many of our young men and women are once again fighting in our name today.

“We hope that the public will continue to be as supportive and generous as they have always been and thank volunteers like Gordon and Sonia who give up their free time to help The Royal British Legion’s annual Poppy Appeal.”