VANDALS destroyed a memorial poppy wreath outside a Royal British Legion building — while members were at a Remembrance Sunday parade.

Glynis Knapman, from the Royal British Legion, was horrified when she returned from the service in Victoria Square on Sunday to find the wreath missing from the front of the building.

The back of the wreath had been ripped off and it had been thrown into the road and driven over.

Mrs Knapman, who is chairman of the Bolton branch of the Royal British Legion in Chorley New Road, said: “The wreath was just lying there in the road. It’s terrible.

“We’d had our own little service outside the legion building to remember our fallen men.

“It’s so pointless and senseless. The club’s been here since 1946 and nothing like this has ever happened before. What pleasure will the perpetrators have got out of it?

“To have come from the Armistice Day service, where hundreds of people stood in the rain to pay their respects and gave their time, it really upset me.”

The vandalism comes after 24-year-old Daniel Orrell pleaded guilty to an act of outraging public decency when he urinated on a war memorial in Nelson Square in July.

He has since made amends for his actions by selling poppies for the Royal British Legion and has promised to continue to work with the charitable organisation.

Mrs Knapman said she was able to patch the memorial back together — but it will have to be replaced at a later date.

The poppy wreaths usually stay in place until Christmas, alongside a small wooden cross outside the building.

Mr Knapman added: “We’re not going to change how we carry out our memorials — we shouldn’t have to.

“We just need people to be mindful of what’s gone on and to look out for it in case anything else happens in the future.”