Marines march through Ottery, Tipton and Newton Pop

ROYAL Marines marched through Newton Poppleford, Tipton and Ottery St Mary in an epic bid to raise �1million for the Royal British Legion (RBL).

The marine team trekking across Devon was one of four in the UK who speed-marched a mile for every British military life lost on operations in Iraq and Afghanistan since 2001.

RBL representatives, with standards from Sidmouth and Sidbury and Sidford branches, greeted soldiers last Friday as they passed through Tipton.

“I thought they were brilliant, absolutely fantastic,” said RBL Sidmouth chairman Dave O’ Connor, “I think they appreciated the fact we were there to support them.”

The marines were greeted by standard-bearing RBL representatives in Silver Street, Ottery, before heading to Alfington.

Ottery’s Poppy Appeal organiser Derek Baxter said that, despite rain, people lined the streets in support, adding: “It was personal to the people who did it.”

“More and more people know someone who has been affected by war,” said March organiser Lance Corporal Ram Patten.

Wearing military uniform, marines marched an average of 30 miles a day and a total distance of up to 250 miles, carrying forty pounds of equipment.

They united with fellow fundraisers and headed to London yesterday to deliver the Book of Remembrance to the Royal Albert Hall as part of the RBL’s National Festival of Remembrance.