The Royal British Legion in Wiltshire launched the 2014 Poppy Appeal in spectacular fashion on Monday, with parachutists descending into the Stonehenge monument.

Members of Jump4Heroes, the RBL’s parachute team, jumped out of a plane over the neolithic site to bring a large poppy down among the stones and present it to the Lord Lieutenant of Wilt-shire, Sarah Troughton, and the county’s High Sheriff, Peter Addington.

The launch day was attended by children from Shrewton Primary School, in Salisbury, who read out a poem that they had written about the appeal. There was also a reading of an extract from wartime book In Flanders Fields, written by John McCrae.

The RBL community fundraiser for Wiltshire, Fiona Dobson, has said the target to beat for this year was £580,000 in Wiltshire and she hoped the stunning launch would encourage people to donate.

She said: “The whole campaign is in the memory of the fallen and the future of the living. We hope to raise £38.9million nationally, which would be a record.”

Each year, the Royal British Legion runs the Poppy Appeal campaign nationally, to raise money to support past and present service personnel and their families.

This year’s campaign is even more poignant, as 2014 is the centenary of the start of the First World War.

Poppies are available to own by donation from the last week of October until Remembrance Sunday, or Armistice Day on November 11, whichever is later each year.