THE Rotary Club of Bournemouth has awarded honorary memberships to two leading members of the community.

Angus Campbell, the Lord Lieutenant of Dorset, and Andy Martin, the Daily Echo’s deputy editor and head of news, were both inducted by President Mary Brackley during a lunch held at Bournemouth’s Suncliffe Hotel.

In introducing the Lord Lieutenant, President-Nominee Mike Preen said that he had the privilege of meeting Angus, a former leader of Dorset County Council, at the district final of the Rotary Young Chef Compet-ition.

On that occasion Angus very kindly accepted an invitation to present the certificates and prize winners’ awards.

Mike said: “This was one of Angus’ first engagements upon taking up the post of Lord Lieutenant of Dorset, but lo and behold he performed a similar function the very next day at the District Rotary Young Musician Competition at Canford School.”

Mike thanked Angus for his longstanding support and under-standing of what Rotary was striving to achieve.

Then past president Maurice Patterson reflected on the outstanding support the Echo gave to local good causes.

In 2006, the club, which was founded 100 years ago, had nominated the then editor of the paper, the late Neal Butterworth, for a Paul Harris Fellowship, Rotary International’s highest award, for initiating a campaign to raise the profile of a number of worthy good causes and helping to raise the staggering amount of £7m.

He said the Echo’s reporting team led by Andy Martin had played a major part in this enterprise and the paper itself had been awarded a Certificate of Appreciation by the Rotary Foundation.

Maurice said the Echo had continued to give excellent publicity to the club’s own efforts to support a large number of local and international good causes.

In pinning on their Rotary badges, President Mary Brackley said she was thrilled to welcome Angus and Andy as honorary members, and hoped that their association with the Club would be a long and happy one.