A pensioner and her ex-serviceman son are distraught after flowers they laid in memory of the solider murdered in Woolwich were stolen.

Mary Blundell’s 52-year-old son served in the 2nd Battalion Royal Regiment of Fusiliers - the same regiment as drummer Lee Rigby, who was killed as he returned to his barracks.

The 89-year-old, who lives in Bennett Close, Hampton Wick, decided to lay two bouquets on the Teddington War memorial on May 30, but driving past the following day saw they had disappeared.

She said: “The young soldier was violently killed.

“I am in tears. To think a young man can lose his life and then someone can do such a thing.

“My son just thinks people don’t care. We spent money that he really couldn’t afford but he did it for the honour of the young man.

“It’s a terrible terrible thing. That’s how I feel.

“In a community like Teddington that has money yet no one else had put flowers there.”