WAR Horse author Sir Michael Morpurgo has unveiled a special bench featuring a ‘war horse’ of the kind that inspired his famous novel in the centre of Hatherleigh in time for Remembrance Day.

The unveiling of the special bench commissioned by the RBL branch saw Sir Michael chat with Legion members, many of them veterans, and also read from one of his books.

The new bench, paid for by the RBL branch with the town council topping up the pot to the tune of £200, will form a permanent marker of the RBL branch in town.

After Sir Michael’s unveiling the bench was blessed by parish priest the Rev Leigh Winsbury.

Town mayor Clare Tyson also attended the ceremony; the town council and Legion branch chose the design together, opting for a war horse like the character Joey the horse in Michael Morpurgo’s novel for children, which marked its 40th anniversary in October.

Royal British Legion branch secretary Paul Wilkinson, who spearheaded the project, said they had wanted to install the bench to mark the Legion’s presence in Hatherleigh, should it every fold, as the branch is a small one and its members getting older.

He said: ‘It was nice to have the service on Saturday. We had branch chairman Alan Cramleigh say a few words and welcome Michael and Michael read a few poems and had a bit of a chat and Leigh our vicar did the blessing. He looked thorugh the paperwork and there was nothing there about blessing a bench, so he winged it and said a few words. It was absolutely lovely.’

Sir Michael read Aunties, a poem by the late famous Snowman author Raymond Briggs about all the women left husbandless by the First World War. He also read the song Only Remembered from the stage production of War Horse.

Both were addressed to the statue of Joey the horse, created by children and parents, which is outside primary school, next to the bench. Joey is the central character in War Horse, book, play and film, inspired by tales that Michael was told by veterans around the fire in his local pub in Iddesleigh, the Duke of York, more than 40 years ago.

‘It was lovely,’ he said. ‘There were about 100 people there, including some children, and the vicar and mayor and we did some readings. I think it is very appropriate that the bench is outside the primary school.’