THE names of 62 servicemen who died in the First World War have been read out outside a York church – before volunteers inside began preparing for 30,000 poppies to be installed on the building’s walls.

Members of the city’s Gild of Freemen staged a ceremony at All Saints Church in Pavement at 11am yesterday, reading out names listed in The King’s Book Of York Heroes at York Minster of York men and women killed in service during the conflict.

The casualties dated from October 15, 1914, when 16-year-old Alfred Maddison died, to April 15, 1915, when William Lowther, 19, was killed, and the names were read out by Gild members Tom Gibson, Andrea Smith, Sara Giles, Eileen Forth, Hazel Hague, Keith Isaac and Brenda Batty.

There will be daily public readings across the city over the next six weeks, with the final 20 names read out on November 11 to mark the centenary of the Armistice.

Volunteers inside the church later began attaching thousands of knitted, crocheted and felt poppies to plastic garden netting prior to being installed at the church next month.

As many as 30,000 poppies are set to cascade down the walls to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Armistice which ended the First World War.

They have been made by people all over the country, many of whom are relatives of those who died in the war and other conflicts, and a display inside the church features cards written by relatives explaining who they have lost.

Among them was a card by Linda Lacy of Badgerhill, recounting how her poppy was in memory of her uncle, Ronald Shepherdson, a York man who died of beriberi in 1943, aged 32, after being taken as a prisoner-of-war in Malaya.

Her card stated: “Thank you for our freedom...for your tomorrow, we got our today.”

Linda said she became involved in the poppy project after reading about it in The Press last year, and she had made it a community project for York Inner Wheel - "the ladies’ section of Rotary" -of which she is president this year, and York Ainsty and York Vikings Inner Wheel had also become involved. “The whole thing just snowballed.”

Evensong at 6.30pm on Sunday, November 4, will mark the start of the Poppy Project, with people who have made the poppies invited to attend. The poppies will stay up until November 19, with a Remembrance Sunday service being held at the church at 10.30am on Sunday, November 11.

*The poppy installation is being funded by remaining money in The Press’ City of York Afghanistan Commemorative Appeal, which created a stained glass window at the church to commemorate those who served in Afghanistan, including three servicemen who were killed.