Tributes have been paid to a former leading light in the Girl Guide movement. Elaine Lickfold died aged 82 after a long battle with cancer.

Her commitment to Guides in the South of England had been a hallmark of her life from a young age.

She married first husband Ronald Lickfold at the age of 22 and the couple received a guard of honour from 1st Ruislip Company on leaving the church.

She went on to become District Commissioner for Ruislip before moving to Brighton in 1955.

Three years later, she became District Commissioner for the East Hove District. For the next decade, she carried out this role with considerable energy and success.

Former guide Susan Kennedy said: "I'm so grateful to Elaine, who we nicknamed Cookie, for those times. I look back on my years as a guide as some of the best of my life."

During the Sixties, Elaine became prominent in campaigning for justice over planning decisions.

After Hove Town Hall burnt to the ground in 1966, a number of houses in Norton Road and Tisbury Road, including Elaine's, were compulsorily purchased by the council so that it could build a large modern replacement.

Her battle for a better deal for the homeowners earned her praise from the media and, off the record, from council officials.

After her husband died, she used her astute business mind to set up independent tour operator Holy Land Travel.

Taking on Middle Eastern hoteliers, commercial organisations and even Israeli government officials, earned her the nicknames of the Iron Lady and Lady Lickfold.

She moved to Bournemouth in 1983 and married long-time friend Fred Applegate six years later.

She died peacefully at the Macmillan Unit in Christchurch Hospital. She was buried in Hove Cemetery on Monday, March 10.