THIS year a memorial bell will solemnly toll as the bodies of fallen servicemen are brought back to RAF Brize Norton.

And on that bell will be the eye-catching and poignant design of one Year Eight pupil from Carterton.

Ellie Simmons yesterday won a competition to design an emblem for the bell and said she was delighted.

The 12-year-old knows the impact war can have on a family, as her father Dean was sent to Afghanistan and Iraq.

She said: “It’s overwhelming really, I can’t believe it. My design will be on there for years. I thought I’d done quite well but I didn’t think it was the sort of design that would have stood”

Ellie beat competition from 65 other Carterton Community College pupils. Her design includes a poppy and is in the shape of a soldier’s helmet, made to look like the world.

She will also get to see it being made at London’s White-chapel Bell Foundry, which cast Big Ben. She will be the guest of honour at the unveiling ceremony, expected in early spring, and will see her design framed and displayed at ceremonies.

Ellie said: “My dad was sent to Afghanistan for six months, so I know what other families are going through.”

Her father Warrant Officer Dean Simmons, 40, who joined up when he was just 16, is currently serving with Royal Engineers.

His Afghan tour saw him working on buildings and infrastructure at Camp Bastion. He also served in both Iraq conflicts.

Back at RAF Brize Norton he has been involved in the repatriations to Oxfordshire.

He said: “We are very proud of Ellie and her win rounds off all these years we have had in the services. I’ll be leaving the Army in March, but over the years I’ve been sent across the world. Now Ellie is a bit older, she understands that more.”

The 644lb bell will cost about £18,000. Last year the Gannett Foundation, the charitable arm of the Oxford Mail’s parent company Gannett, donated £9,000 to the campaign.

It will be installed in a tower opposite the memorial garden in Norton Way, Carterton.

The judging panel included councillors and Bampton resident Lee Mackie, whose 21-year-old son Jason was killed in Afghanistan in 2009.

West Oxfordshire District Councillor Bill Oddy said: “It was a striking design and very fitting.

“In about 30 years she’ll be taking her own children there and saying ‘I designed that’.”

Pupils from the school were also heavily involved in fundraising for the bell.

The four runners-up in the competition were Leanna Upson, Ryan Scott, Anise Da Silva Martins and Keasi Gonewai.