THE POPPY Appeal’s fundraising target has been smashed in the county.

The £500,000 barrier was broken for the first time in Oxfordshire as the centenary of the First World War inspired people to give generously.

Donations to the Royal British Legion hit just under £518,000, with more money set to roll in over the coming months.

Before last year, the record total was £492,189 in 2011/2012, coinciding with the RBL’s 90th anniversary.

Oxfordshire community fundraiser for the RBL Mark Garwood said the centenary effect was the driving factor.

Mr Garwood, 36, a dad-of-two from Carterton, added: “It’s a record-breaking total so far and money is still coming in – I think the cut-off point for the year’s total is September.

“The centenary of the start of the First World War has had an awful lot to do with the record being broken.”

Last year thousands of people attended Remembrance Day services across the county, including at St Giles in Oxford.

And on November 11 more than 200 people attended a special Turning the Pages ceremony at Christ Church Cathedral to remember the fallen from the two World Wars.

Names of the fallen from the Queen’s Own Oxfordshire Hussars and the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry were read before a two-minute silence.

Mr Garwood said: “Centenary events were so high-profile that the anniversary was in people’s minds all the time and the poppies at the Tower of London inspired people to make donations.

“Across Oxfordshire we were inundated with people buying poppies and wristbands and making donations whenever they could.”

The record-breaking total so far for 2014/2015 is significantly more than the amount raised last year – £482,367.

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Mr Garwood said £517,630 was a significant amount and would go towards the RBL’s efforts to help veterans, injured troops, and their families.

He added: “The money helps to pay for rehabilitation support for serving personnel and ex-personnel and their families.

“Some soldiers need rehabilitation at places like Headley Court in Surrey, a medical rehabilitation centre, and money also goes towards home adaptations and providing a better life for servicemen who have been injured in conflict.”

Jim Lewendon, 86, from Headington, who steps down as chairman of the Oxfordshire RBL branch on February 14, has been selling poppies for 41 years, and pledged to do the same this year.

He added: “People were incredibly generous last year - usually I go out collecting for a whole week but I can’t stand for too long now so I went out over two Saturdays.

“I got a total of £560 over the two days which I was very pleased with.

“The response from the public, including young people, was amazing and I think that had a lot to do with the centenary of the First World War.

“We want to keep that enthusiasm going over the next few and remember all the soldiers who fought in the First World War, not just those involved in the conflict in 1914.

“I will keep going with this because I know the RBL money is put to good use helping veterans, including those hurt in more recent conflicts - some of the troops in Afghanistan suffered horrific injuries and it’s a lifetime’s effort supporting them.

“I have been involved for over 40 years and I’m not stopping now.”

Father-of-three Brian Hathaway, 77, who lives with wife Sylvia in Appleton, near Abingdon, injured his arm when he was completing his National Service in 1959.

Following a £1,000 donation from the RBL, the couple’s oil-fired central heating boiler was replaced.

Mr Hathaway said: “I’m glad so much money has been raised. I still suffer today from my injury.”

More than 5,800 soldiers from the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry died during the two World Wars.

The 2nd Battalion of the Ox and Bucks was involved in a famous battle at Nonne Bosschen Wood, east of Ypres in November 1914, when about 400 troops used bayonets to rout the Prussian Guard from the wood, suffering only a handful of casualties.

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