Poppy Seller to the stars, Brian Coombs, talks to Andrew Eborn about his life

Brian Coombs has been selling poppies to raise money for the British Legion since 1989.
Brian has met a galaxy of stars from Prince Charles, Danny DeVito, Roger Daltrey, Sir Tom Jones, Dame Vera Lynn, Cliff Richard, Ollie Murs, Ross Kemp, Tom Jones, Carol Vorderman and Ben Shephard
The British Legion paid for Brian to go to Singapore to see the grave of the father, Private Stanley Coombs who was 22 when he was blown up as he landed in Singapore with the Buckinghamshire and Hampshire Regiment on Valentine’s Day 1942.

Back home in Islington, London, his wife, Mary, was seven months pregnant.
She gave birth to Brian in April 1942 and did not find out until Christmas Eve that her husband had been killed in action.
Brian, of Eltham, South London says while working as a DJ in a friend’s pub, he got chatting about the war and someone told him the British Legion would pay for him to go to see his father’s grave.
He recalls: “I got in touch with the Legion and they gave me a £500 grant to go to Kranji War Cemetery in Singapore, where more than 24,000 allies are buried.
“The place was so big I got really upset because I couldn’t find my father’s grave.
“A Chinese man who worked there came up to me and asked, ‘are you OK?’
“I said, ‘No. I’ve come from London to see my father’s grave but I can’t find it’.
“He took me straight to Dad’s grave and he said to me, ‘Your father knew you were coming today . . . because his flowers are the only ones in bloom’. I cried my eyes out.