Sadness and pride will dominate a church ceremony todaywhen Mundesley Royal British Legion (RBL) Women's Section members lay up their standard, after 89 years.

The branch, one of the largest in the country with nearly 100 members, has voted unanimously to fold, disillusioned at its treatment by national RBL chiefs.

Mundesley becomes the 16th out of 27 branches in Norfolk to opt for closure because members are angry that they were not consulted over plans to turn the women's section into a district of the RBL.

Hazel Kingswood, acting chairman of Norfolk RBL Women's Section, has denounced the way national chiefs have handled the changes as 'dictatorial' and 'pre-suffragette'.

Jenny Lambert, who has been Mundesley branch chairman for the past five years, said they had raised more than £29,000 for service personnel and their dependants during her term of office but their future efforts would not benefit the RBL.

Instead, they would continue to meet under a different name and would be raising money for forces' charity SSAFA, to benefit people in Norfolk.

'I'm very sad. We could have worked together if they had been truthful with us from the start but we feel like something you have trodden in,' said Mrs Lambert, 72, whose grandmother Annie Wild was one of the branch founders and whose mother Queenie Wild was also a branch stalwart.

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