An 86-year-old Second World War veteran had both his walking sticks stolen while he was collecting money for the Poppy Appeal.

Gordon Thompson, a former sailor who served on convoys to the besieged island of Malta, was accepting donations near the checkout tills at Morrisons’ supermarket, in Keighley, when the thieves struck.

He said he had leaned both sticks up against a wall, only two or three metres away from where he was standing. But when he turned to collect them at the end of the afternoon they had gone. “I wondered just what the hell had happened,” he said.

He added he was “wobbly” on his feet without the sticks — which he had used for about 12 years — so could not return to his Riddlesden home on the bus. He instead had to pay extra for a taxi.

Long-standing Royal British Legion member Mary Lister helped walk him to the waiting taxi.

“I think this is shameful,” she said. “We had a few elderly gentlemen with us at the time so it would have been obvious that these sticks belonged to one of them.

“We went to the customer service desk to see if anyone had handed the sticks in but they weren’t there either.

“Gordon is from a more trusting generation and this left him in a bit of a mess.”

Mr Thompson is currently getting around using a pair of spare, 26-year-old walking sticks he happened to have at home.

During the war he was in the Royal Navy and served on board the cruiser HMS Dido from 1942-45.

British Legion member and Keighley town councillor, Laurence Brocklesby, said: “It seems that some people think nothing of stealing from the elderly.” He added that apart from this incident the Poppy Appeal collection had been extremely successful, with many members of the public giving generously.

The only surviving Second World War train of its kind is be-ing named in memory of those who have died for their country.

The Keighley and Worth Valley Railway (K&WVR), which now owns the locomotive, is giving it the title “Remembrance - Lest We Forget”, on Armistice Day, next Tuesday.

Out of 1,000 produced, locomotive No 90773 is the only train surviving and has been restored by the K&WVR using lottery money.

K&WVR spokesman Roger France said the train had been vital during the war effort. “We feel strongly that it is not just for the people who died in the Second World War but for people who are fighting now in Afghanistan and Iraq and losing their lives. We as a railway feel we should do something to honour those people,” he said.

The locomotive played a part in the D-Day landings and then served in the Allies’ advance in France, was bought by the Dutch railways and then ended up in Sweden. One of the Worth Valley members saw it and it came to Keighley in 1973.

Next Tuesday’s event will take place at 11am, at Keighley Station, on the Worth Valley line.