Town to turn red with street poppies for veterans

Veterans will be honoured with individual poppies as part of a campaign to turn a Lincolnshire town red.

The poppies are being attached to lampposts in Skegness, with more than 250 expected to be up in time for Armistice Day on Wednesday 11 November.

The symbols of remembrance are being paid for by residents and dedicated to a veteran as part of the town's Poppy Appeal.

Tracy Turner, from the town's branch of the Royal British Legion, which is behind the campaign, said: "It is very important that we don't forget their sacrifices. People lost their lives so we could do what we do today."

Branch chairman Kevin Woolley, who has been helping place the poppies around the town, said there were two tributes that were especially poignant to him.

He said: "The one that we saw put up today is one of my friends that I lost in Northern Ireland, Lance Corporal Michael Beswick, tragically taken away from us.

"It means a lot to be able to remember him and put his name on a poppy and let people see his name."

Woolley said the other was a tribute to Alfred Conway, who was a Burma Star veteran who died in April 2026 aged 100.

"He was the last Burma Star veteran in Lincolnshire, which was a phenomenal conflict. So the things he'd seen, you wouldn't want to dream of.

"But he was a funny guy and I had the honour of carrying the standard at his funeral. He was a good man," he said.

Turner added this latest collection was a chance to "to turn the town red", following installations in the previous two years.

The branch created a display attached to the side of Altitude 44, a 69ft-tall (21m) high-wire activity in the town in 2025, using nets with almost 85,000 handmade poppies attached.

In 2024, more than 37,082 poppies donated from around the world covered the town's clock tower.

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