WEYMOUTH'S Royal British Legion has its first woman chairman for more than 30 years.

Naomi Turner will take over the chairmanship of the town branch from Major Douglas McMeeken after the annual general meeting tonight.

Mrs Turner, 51, has organised Weymouth's Poppy Appeal and has been a member of the Legion's branch committee for the last eight years.

She is the first woman chairman of Weymouth RBL since Monica Anderson, now 75, in 1968. Mrs Anderson said: "I am delighted that Naomi is going to be chairman.

"After more than 30 years, it is about time the Legion had a woman in charge again.

Women can bring many skills to the job, such as the ability to improve co-operation between people."

Mrs Turner's main aims for her chairmanship are to move the Legion to a new headquarters in Weymouth and increase the number of younger members.

She said: "We need more young people - without them we will fade away, and they can have an energising effect on other members. We have affiliated air and sea cadets to the Legion in the last year and hope to do the same with other youth organisations in the area."

Major McMeeken is stepping down after nearly two years in charge. He said: "One of the main priorities is for the Legion to move to more suitable premises."

He added: "We have achieved a lot in the last two years - for example the war pensions campaign, run with the help of the Echo.

"We also achieved a significant reduction in parking charges at the Veterans' Rendezvous in Weymouth. The number of people attending had fallen by about half due to the high charges, but it is now back to around 300."

The Weymouth branch is also proposing the idea of a 'ribbon of remembrance' to be worn by relatives of services' men and women killed during the Second World War and more recent conflicts. The idea will go before the Legion's national conference next year.