TWO dedicated volunteers from Dorset have been presented specially minted Maundy coins by Her Majesty the Queen.

Last Thursday’s service, at St George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle, was attended by 90 men and 90 women from across Britain who received the Maundy money.

They had been recommended by the Diocese of Salisbury.

Lifelong Poole resident Peter Hooper, 81, is in his 48th year as director of music at St George’s Church in Oakdale and lives nearby in Creekmoor.

“I feel very humbled indeed that I was invited,” he said. “It’s a great honour. I was very excited and a little nervous beforehand.

“It has been a joy being involved in training the choir, including generations of boys and girls, over the years.

“Music has always been important to me. I learned the violin as a boy in lessons, and then a friend encouraged me to try my hand at being a church organist, and I taught myself the piano and the organ.

“At first, I was organist in Hampreston, then took over in St George’s in 1968. I have now served under four vicars.

“My favourite moment was about four years ago, when St George’s Choir was invited to sing choral evensong at Salisbury Cathedral when the choir school was there was on holiday.

“I also remember with fondness that after 40 years in service, my assistant Michelle Cobley organised a great big service and lunch for me, which was a great honour.”

Jim Wilson, who lives in Puddletown and attends St Mary’s Church there, also received a coin. He has been a churchwarden and vice-chair of the church’s fabric committee, as well as being treasurer to the parochial church council for 15 of the last 30 years. He has also been treasurer of Dorchester Deanery in the past, and serves the wider community as honorary treasurer of the Puddletown Charity.

“It’s a great honour,” he said of the Maundy Service. “It came out of the blue completely. I’m normally so busy trying to sort out the fabric of a 1,000-year-old church that wants to fall down all the time.”