Nancy Felton has recently retired from volunteering for the Royal British Legion, having sold poppies in Garndiffaith since 1969. She spoke to THOMAS MOODY about her time collecting for the Legion.

NANCY FELTON is well-known on the Garn, even being dubbed ‘The Poppy Queen’ by some. She began her journey after volunteering in Abersychan and since then, she has collected in Pontnewydd, Pontypool and Garndiffaith.

“We went to a dinner and dance at the Abersychan Legion and they asked for volunteers,” she said. “Me and my friend Rene Leek signed up.

“She helped me for the first year but had to stop after that as she was having a baby.

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Nancy Felton has been collecting for the Royal British Legion for 50 years

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“That first year, me and Rene went around and collected £30 each. This year, I collected more than £600.

“I twice had someone collecting with me: Rene in that first year and then another of my friends helped me in 1987, but other than that I would always do it on my own, apart from our daughter Nic who I used to bring along in her push chair, and (husband) Ron after he retired.

“Ron’s father was in the navy in the early 1920s and was also a member of the Legion, and his brother-in-law was also an ex-serviceman.

“My brother Glyn also served. He was stationed on Christmas Island when they were testing the atomic bomb.

“It was having that familial connection that helped me get involved at the start.

“They used to bring me the poppies to sell. I’ve been collecting for 50 years. I never thought I would be collecting for so long.”

Mrs Felton said meeting new people was one of the highlights of collecting for the Legion.

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Nancy Felton (R) lays a wreath at the dedication service for the two memorial benches in Abersychan .Picture: www.christinsleyphotography.co.uk

“After these 50 years, everybody in the area knows me,” she said. “People would come to the house to buy their poppy, and some people would come buy and donate even if they didn’t want a poppy.

“What I really enjoyed about it was you meet different people every day. No two days were the same.

“But you would also have your regulars, who would buy their poppies from you every year. That was quite surreal that they would make a point of only buying one from you.

“There was one lady that would come and buy a pin with the year on it from me every year.”

Looking back over her collection cards from the Blaenavon branch of the Royal British Legion, Mrs Felton found she had collected more than £10,000 in the past 20 years.

Her husband Ron said: “A friend of ours was here yesterday and asked how much Nancy had collected.

“We have the cards from the Blaenavon branch of the Legion for the last 20 years and in that time she has collected £10,178.

“She used to go round the houses and eventually she would stand outside the shops in Garndiffaith. I only helped with the transport after I retired, she does everything else.

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Nancy Felton being awarded a certificate for her years of service at the Blaenavon branch of the Royal British Legion. Picture: Nancy Felton

“In 2021, the Legion will be 100 years old. Out of that, she has been selling poppies for 50 of them.

“That’s incredible to think of.

“She has been selling so long that children who bought their poppies from her have grown up and then bring their children to buy them from her too.”

“And their grandchildren, and some great-grandchildren,” added Mrs Felton. “The whole Poppy Appeal in the local area in 1987 collected £376.22. That’s the difference to what it’s like now.

“When I started, it was just selling poppies and crosses. Now it’s all kinds of things, you need a table for it all really.

“The highest amount I ever collected was £713.

“The Blaenavon branch would always come over to the house and they would count it out in front of me.

“They would bring the table in to the front room and empty the boxes one by one.“This year it took almost two hours to count it all.

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Nancy Felton being awarded a certificate by John Penny at the Blaenavon branch of the Royal British Legion. Picture: Nancy Felton

“If the people on the Garn were not so generous, I would never have been able to collect so much money. They have been very generous over the years.”

When two memorial benches were installed in Abersychan in February, Mrs Felton was asked to lay a wreath as part of the ceremony.

Looking back at being asked to take part in the ceremony, she said: “It was an honour to be asked and to be involved in an event like that.

“Cllr Giles Davies asked me to take part. He called me ‘The Poppy Queen’.

“The community really supported it. Everyone came out for the ceremony.”

In November, after 50 years of collecting for the Royal British Legion, Mrs Felton decided to retire.

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A certificate awarded to Nancy Felton in 1986 for her distinguished voluntary effort in collecting for the Poppy Appeal.

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A collection card showing Nancy Felton had collected £713.57 for the Poppy Appeal one year.

“I never thought there would be so much fuss when I retired,” she said. “I would have probably carried on if I could, but I’m 85 now.

“It was a great evening at Blaenavon. John Penny did the presentation as he was the oldest member.

“Ron and our son and daughter were there, along with the members of the Blaenavon branch of the Legion.

“I’d like to thank everybody out there who has given money over the years. I gave an hour a day for a fortnight a year, but there are people out there who gave their lives.”

The ceremony wasn’t the first time she has been honoured by the Legion.

“The first certificate I received was in 1986,” she said. “The area secretary of the Legion came up from Newport to present me with the certificate.

“I was a bit of a surprise to me – I thought we were just having a social evening at the branch.”