REMEMBRANCE organisers were shocked when tributes laid at the town’s war memorial started disappearing - with the investigative snail trail leading to the slimy creatures responsible.

Marlow Remembers World War One and the Royal British Legion are placing poppies and crosses at the foot of the memorial on the Causeway to mark the centenary of the deaths of each Marlow soldier involved in the conflict.

Members were puzzled when the poppies - 24 having been planted so far - started going missing from their carefully constructed display.

But instead of heartless yobs taking the tributes, it emerged that a platoon of snails were helping themselves to the tasty cellulose flowers.

RBL branch chairman Shaun Murphy said: "We’re planting crosses for each of the dead soldiers but the problem is the poppies are being eaten.

"We wondered why, and on one of the crosses I found a snail. We could have put slug pellets down but we didn’t want to do that."

Mr Murphy revealed a novel way round the problem after a copper band was placed round the cross to stop the snails from climbing to reach their tasty meal.

By the end of the centenary, around 220 tributes will stand at the memorial, with each carrying the name, age and unit of the Marlow servicemen who gave their lives in battle.

Each soldier’s history has been painstakingly researched by historians as remembrance groups chart the centenary of the Great War from now until 2018.