Poppy Appeal stalwart Jean Lloyd began collecting for the Royal British Legion before the Japanese invasion of Pearl Harbour in 1941.

The campaigning 83-year-old, whose father and husband were both prisoners of war — the former in the First World War, the latter in the Second World War— joined the RBL two months before the attack.

Mrs Lloyd, who lives in The Avenue, Kennington, with husband Alfred, who she married in 1948, said it had been a pleasure to be able to help for so long.

Last week, she spent two days collecting door-to-door in Kennington, where the couple have lived since 1961.

But over the last 67 years she has also sold poppies in London, Oxford and Abingdon.

Mrs Lloyd, currently a member of the Littlemore branch of the RBL, said: "I was 16 when I joined the Legion.

"I used to help my mum in Clapham. It was pretty good — we raised a lot of money.

"I remember they asked me to carry the Royal British Legion standard on the annual parade. I was thrown in the deep end — I was scared stiff.

"I remember when I was 16 a lady came to the door during the blackout and asked what the Poppy Appeal was for.

"She came back with some money and I realised she was blind."

Mrs Lloyd's father Wallace Eldridge joined the Royal Berkshire Regiment in 1914.

"He was a prisoner of war in France and suffered shell shock, but made it back to Britain alive,” she said.

Similarly, her husband — a paratrooper — was shot in the arm during the Second World War and taken prisoner by the Germans.

She said: "I'm all for the RBL. Servicemen often need help. They do so much."

Kennington Poppy Appeal organiser Barbara Boyne said that Mrs Lloyd had been a loyal servant to the RBL.

She added: "Jean is wonderful, she is very public spirited and a great help."

As part of our Poppy Appeal coverage, the Oxford Mail featured a similar story to Mrs Lloyd's last Friday about Betty Sowerby.

Mrs Sowerby, 83, from Witney, was inspired to serve the RBL since 1948 by her mother, who continued as a poppy seller into her 98th year.

She said: "When she got too old to stand in the street, people came to her to get them from her house."

The Mail is backing a bid to raise a record amount, in excess of £611,000, from poppy sales this year.

Royal British Legion volunteers begin selling poppies in Oxford and across the county from tomorrow until next Saturday, the day before RemembranceSunday.