This year the Royal British Legion Annual County Conference was held in the Guildhall, Axminster on Saturday, January 27.

Delegates and standard Bearers from many of the 54 Devon RBL branches were in attendance. The Mayor of Axminster, Ms Jill Farrow, an RBL Member, welcomed everybody to the town and the RBL County President, Rear Admiral Chris Snow DL opened the proceedings. The raffle which had been well supported by local businesses raised £465 towards RBL funds

In front of the well-attended meeting, including a good number of Poppy Appeal Organisers and Poppy Appeal volunteers; (and following on from Axminster Branch which won it in 2023,) Honiton Branch won the RBL Devon County ‘Crediton Cup’ for having locally demonstrated the most initiative during the previous year, by how well the branch had met the charitable aims and objectives of the Royal British Legion

The RBL Devon County Annual Report stated that so far known the 2023/24 Poppy Appeal they were pleased to say that we are already ahead of year end from the 2022/23 Appeal. This is purely down to the hard work, passion and dedication shown by our incredible volunteers, without their support the RBL simply could not deliver to the same standard.

Interesting facts and figures were shared with the attendees on how the Poppy Appeal funds have supported service personnel, families and veterans.

Last year saw a 35% increase across the need for welfare services, nationally £80m was spent supporting over 26,000 beneficiaries, admiral nurses provided care to over 1700 people a month, £5m awarded to help with the cost of living crisis, the compensations team helped beneficiaries receive awards totalling £39m.

In Devon between Oct 22 and Sept 23, 608 grants were made totalling £278,000 with the average age of a beneficiary, 51 years old.

This coming year the Axminster Branch will also be remembering the 80th Anniversary of D-Day and will be active on Saturday 29th June celebrating  Armed Forces Day.