The Duchess of Cornwall has chatted with employees of The Poppy Factory during an official visit to mark her new role as royal patron.

Camilla stopped by the factory, in Richmond, to experience first-hand the work undertaken by the charity on behalf of disabled ex-Service personnel and their dependants.

The wife of Prince Charles met key Poppy Factory personnel including President, Sara Jones, Chairman Mark Perowne and Chief Executive Melanie Waters.

She also got introduced to several of the clients of the charity, including Paul Hammerton and Chris McVeigh from Hounslow, who are former veterans who have been assisted by The Poppy Factory in finding meaningful and sustainable employment in the civilian workplace.

The Duchess of Cornwall visits the Poppy Factory

The Duchess witnessed teams of employees produce, by hand, the poppies, wreaths and crosses for the annual Remembrance Day events. She also got to personally inspect the Royal wreaths, including the one which is made by hand every year for her husband.

Chief Executive Melanie Waters said: “We are honoured and delighted that The Duchess of Cornwall has chosen to support our work. The Poppy Factory uses its unique expertise to help disabled veterans into work with many businesses throughout the UK. The patronage of The Duchess will help us to continue this work and to highlight the increasing need to support our disabled veterans into meaningful civilian employment.”

In 2013 the team helped 140 disabled veterans into meaningful employment while the factory itself made 12 million poppies, 1 million remembrance crosses and 96,000 wreaths for The Royal British Legion.