HUNDREDS of poppies are to be scattered in the sea off a North-East town in a poignant tribute.

A crew member on the Redcar lifeboat will toss the tributes on to the water, close to Redcar seafront, during a veterans' parade on Sunday.

September 3 is Britain's first ever official Merchant Navy Day and will be marked by a parade through London.

The North-East is having its own procession at Redcar and, with 22 standards expected and at least 100 pensioners, organiser Derek Shorter reckons Teesside's will rival the London march.

The poppies scattered on Sunday morning's half tide will be in memory of the hundreds of North-East merchant seamen, among the thousands who went off to sea and never came home. The floral tribute will not only commemorate the drowned crews of the wartime convoys, like convoy PQ17, when 80 ships were sunk by enemy action, but also lifeboatmen and fishermen who have lost their lives over the years.

Ex-merchant seamen from South Shields will join colleagues from Hartlepool and Teesside in the parade, organised by the Dormanstown and Redcar branch of the Merchant Navy Association.

Mr Shorter is urging local people to attend a thanksgiving service at the Zetland lifeboat museum, Redcar, at the end of the parade.

He said: "We are asking the communities of Redcar and the surrounding areas to join us and honour the memory of the British Merchant Navy.'