THE Duchess of Cornwall has been given a right royal welcome by service families as she launched a holiday centre in Hampshire.

Scores of families packed a new holiday resort designed by Hampshire County Council in a bid to offer military families respite.

Now the Poppy Pods village has had an official unveiling as the Duchess came to the Tile Barn Outdoor Centre venue in Brockenhurst to launch the branch.

The future Queen spent a morning chatting with families currently staying in the pods, walking round the outdoor centre with staff and visiting St Nicholas Church to see a new glass window memorial.

Wearing a white skirt paired with a camel coloured blazer and tan shoes she also visited the graveyard at the back of the church to lay a small bunch of flowers to pay her respects to the fallen soldiers from new Zealand who were treated on the Tile Barn Centre site during World War One when it was a field hospital.

The duchess was welcomed by the Lord Lieutenant of Hampshire, Nigel Atkinson, the chairman of Hampshire County Council, Cllr Keith Chapman, and the leader of the authority, Cllr Roy Perry.

Mr Atkinson said: “There are over 20,000 military personnel based in Hampshire, more than any other county, and I know Her Royal Highness and the people of Hampshire place enormous value on our long and close relationship with the Forces.”

The solar-powered Poppy Pods have been funded by £250,000 from the Armed Forces Community Covenant Grant scheme and £50,000 from the Brockenhurst branch of the Royal British Legion.

Each Poppy Pod is named after a battle from Amiens to Ypres, and pine seeds from Gallipoli have been planted nearby.

Now members of the Armed Forces will be able to use the pods for a holiday and Darren Hatfield, a chef for the Royal Navy, was staying with his family in one of the pods.

He said: “It’s a brilliant idea to offer more support to military personnel in Hampshire and it’s a lovely venue. I am a royalist so it’s also great to have the chance to meet the Duchess, she was so relaxed and brilliant with my daughters.”

The Duchess also met members of the 1st Brabourne and Smeeth Scout Group from Ashford, Kent, who demonstrated the firing of a giant catapult they had built from branches.

She then attended a reception with a performance by the Military Wives Choir of Salisbury and Marchwood attended by families and personnel from The Queen’s Own Rifles, a locally-based regiment of which the duchess is colonel-in-chief, where she unveiled a poppy-shaped plaque marking the opening of the accommodation.

The 20 wooden solar-powered poppy camping pods are the brainchild of Enda Ryan and were inspired by the BBC programme The Choir, with Gareth Malone, which provided an insight into the fears and isolation of military wives as their husbands and partners served in Afghanistan.