Guests and performers at today’s Wiltshire Poppy Appeal launch will be taken to St Giles Church in Imber by a poppy logoed red Routemaster bus.

The Salisbury Plain Military Wives choir, pupils from Kiwi Primary School in Tidworth, service personnel, MP Andrew Murrison and chairman of Wiltshire Council Christine Crisp will be chauffeured by Transport for London Commissioner, Sir Peter Hendy.

Once in Imber, at the centre of the Salisbury Plain Army training area, the choir will give a short performance and the children will present the first Wiltshire poppy to Mrs Crisp.

Lt Col Anthony Hyde, Poppy Appeal organiser for Bratton, will accept a giant cheque from funds raised at The Duke pub in the village, and the nearby Westbury White Horse will display a giant 12-metre poppy throughout the appeal.