Record-breaking Women’s Royal Navy Service officer Barbara McGregor will join Great Western Railway’s Poppies to Paddington operation today.

Barbara is the longest-serving woman in the Royal Navy and will travel by train from her home in Bridgend to lay a wreath at London Paddington’s war memorial on Platform 1.

This will be one of several wreaths taken by train to the capital on Sunday after last year saw more than 250 wreaths carried to Paddington,

The Veterans Charity has created a new Routes of Remembrance campaign which will take in the whole country and feature 11 train operators, as well as ferry companies, airlines, veterans, businesses and private individuals.

Poppies to Paddington was created to ensure communities within the GWR network could honour our fallen heroes despite the restrictions in place around Covid-19 in 2020.

The arrival of the Poppies and the Remembrance service will be broadcast live on GWR’s Facebook page and people are invited to #RememberFromHome.

Barbara, 62, who retired from the Royal Navy on January 31 this year after a career spanning 43 years and 189 days, will read the Act of Remembrance.

She said: “It will be wonderful to be involved and it’s a wonderful gesture from GWR. To think that a little part of Neath, Port Talbot and Bridgend can be represented in this way is fantastic, and I look forward to seeing wreaths from other parts of the network arriving by train.”

Barbara joined the Royal Navy as a radio operator in 1977, serving at HMS Heron, Yeovilton, HMS Dryad, Portsmouth, and HMS Rooke, Gibraltar. This was later followed by the first of two deployments at HMS Raleigh, Cornwall, where she trained new female ratings.

She became the Regional Development Manager for the Naval Regional Command Wales and Western England, which encompasses 15 Armed Forces Careers Offices.

She retired as the most senior Warrant Officer of the Royal Naval Careers Service but will continue to attend Remembrance services as a trustee of the Association of Wrens.

GWR managing director Mark Hopwood said: “Last year Remembrance had to be very different and, working with The Veterans Charity, we ensured communities around the GWR network could get involved.

“This year we are pleased to be bringing people together again in this unique and moving act of Remembrance.”

The Veterans Charity CEO Danny Greeno said: “Working with GWR last year was brilliant and really helped make it special, so this year there are many more operators, expanding it even further.

“The pandemic hasn’t gone away yet, so this is for the veterans, who can see that Remembrance is happening in a unique way. Plus it celebrates the deep links between the railways and the military.”

Lt General Sir Andrew Gregory, CEO of SSAFA, the Armed Forces charity, said: “The pandemic has highlighted the importance of those people who put others before themselves. During the national remembrance period Great Western Railway is once again commemorating the services and sacrifice of members of the Armed Forces along their routes who, by their very duty, put others before themselves.”

Poppies to Paddington wreath laying and collecting will be arriving in Swindon at 8.59am, 9.10am and 9.40am.