DEDICATED Swanage community worker Moyra Cross died on November 17, aged 92.

She and her husband Ronald – known locally as Roger – moved to Swanage in 1969 from London, where they had been working in a large insurance company.

They soon enthusiastically embraced living in their new community, and were at the forefront of protests when the proposal to close the railway station was first announced.

In 1969, she and fellow volunteers campaigned to keep the station open and gathered signatures for a petition.

She was a founding member of Isle of Purbeck Preservation Group which sought the same end.

When the station and line were closed, despite their passionate pleas, Mrs Cross and the others launched the Swanage Railway Society.

Their aim was to restore the line to use, and Mrs Cross volunteered to work in the shop – which first opened in 1976.

Her husband meanwhile got to work on the restoration.

She was still on duty at the shop in 2009, when the first diesel and steam trains ran from London into Swanage for the first time since 1972 and 1967 respectively.

As an honorary life member, she was chosen to name the first Virgin train Dorset Voyager on its arrival in Swanage in 2002, and she continued to work in the shop well into her 80s.

The fruits of her labour and that of her fellow society members will be apparent over the coming years as a regular service is planned on the line between Swanage and Wareham for the first time in 40 years.

In some of her many other activities, Mrs Cross was president of the Durlston WI and group chairman of the 12 Purbeck societies.

She was also a long-term member at St Mary’s Church, often reading the lesson.

In addition as chairman and later a committee member of the Purbeck Society, and a supporter of both the Heritage Centre and the Mowlem, she led a busy life.

Well over a hundred people attended her funeral service at St Mary’s, which was led by the Reverend John Wood, and she was buried in the town’s cemetery beside her late husband.