A NATIONAL memorial to more than a million people killed in the First World War is set to be permanently housed on the edge of Taunton.

The Poppy of Honour Pavilion is likely to be sited within Maidenbrook Country Park.

West Monkton Parish Council has submitted a full planning application to Somerset Council for the creation of the structure.

The Poppy of Honour was created in 2018 - the centenary of the end of the conflict - as a national memorial to honour British and Commonwealth servicemen and servicewomen listed as killed or missing in the Great War.

The idea was spearheaded by Terry Williams, who gained the support of volunteers across the world and sponsorship of local businesses to facilitate the creation of the Poppy of Honour memorial.

It holds 1,117,635 individual remembrance poppies inside its encasement, representing the number of British and Commonwealth servicemen and servicewomen listed by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission as 'Killed In Action' or 'Missing In Action' together with those 'Shot at Dawn' then later pardoned and those who died from their wounds after the Armistice.

Each poppy has been hand-written with painstaking care to bear the rank, name and official date of loss of each individual.

The memorial presents to view a giant, double-sided, red remembrance poppy mounted vertically onto a base constructed from three steel beams welded together having a bifurcated extension at each end to make it free-standing.

At the extremity of each of the four bifurcation arms is a silhouette of a 'Tommy' in reverse-arms position with head bowed in respect and a cast-iron poppy made from British Artillery shell detonators fired during the war.

The Poppy of Honour Memorial Group are to be the custodians of the memorial in perpetuity and are responsible for its maintenance.

The custodians must ensure that the memorial is installed in the Somerset Wood within Maidenbrook Country Park for people to view free of charge.