THE president of the Rotary Club of Tavistock was overwhelmed after receiving Rotary International's highest honour.

Wally Lake, of Lakes Pharmacy in Tavistock, was awarded with a Paul Harris Fellowship at his president's night dinner.

The award, which was named after the founder of Rotary, is given for outstanding and extraordinary service to the community. It was presented to Mr Lake by the district governor of Rotary district 1290, Ken Edmonds.

Mr Lake said: 'I am extremely pleased to have received this award, it was completely unexpected. I didn't know anything about it. The club nominated me and then kept it a secret. It is such a prestigious award.'

After receiving the award at the dinner, Mr Lake was too emotionally overwhelmed to say much apart from thanking his colleagues in the Tavistock club for awarding him the honour, and saying that his late father in-law, who was a life-long Rotarian and also a Paul Harris Fellow, would have been immensely proud of his achievement.

Mr Lake's award was only the seventh Paul Harris Fellowship to be given by the club in its 64 year history.

Mr Lake joined in 1992 and became president of the Tavistock club for the first time in 1996.

He was the club's secretary for five years after that, and due to the sudden death of rotarian Martyn Dudden, Mr Lake has been president for the past two years and is the only person in the club's history to serve two consecutive terms as president.