Just over a year after her death, a plaque has been unveiled to the memory of Molly Dickinson.

Mrs Dickinson had been a stalwart of the community in Bearsted for many years, but the plaque was the initiative of two young villagers who came to know her only more recently.

Jacob and Zachery Anderson, now aged 20 and 16 respectively, called on Mrs Dickinson during the Covid crisis and began doing her shopping for her.

Despite the age difference - Mrs Dickinson was already in her 80s - a friendship evolved.

Jacob said: "She was a lovely lady. My brother and I miss her greatly.

"We live in Royston Road and Molly was just around the corner in Egremont Road.

"She wasn't very good at walking by then so we used to do various jobs for her.”

"She never had childen of her own, yet she clearly liked children - she spent years running Brownies groups.

"She would talk to us about the old days and show us photographs. She said we were like the grandchildren she never had."

After her death, the brothers attended the annual Bearsted parish meeting at Madginford Hall and made a speech requesting a plaque in her memory.

Their request was endorsed by the parish council, which paid for the memorial.

Born in 1934 in Eynsford, Mrs Dickinson had a life-long association with the Brownies, having founded the 2nd Eynsford Brownie pack when she was just 17.

In the late 1950s, while working at the Express Dairies, she met her future husband Ken and the couple married in 1963.

In 1968, they moved to Potters Bar in Hertfordshire where they ran a greengrocers before returning to Kent in 1970, where they both started working at the Safeway depot in Aylesford with Mrs Dickinson as the office clerk.

While at Aylesford, she established the 3rd Aylesford Brownie pack.

The couple moved to Madginford in Bearsted in 1971.

When in 1985, the Madginford Hall was opened by Cllr Patricia Marshall, Mrs Dickinson was asked to become its treasurer, a position she held for the next 36 years and only then gave it up after having a bad fall and breaking her wrist.

Being something of a local celebrity she was asked to open the village's new Somerfield store in the early 1990s. (It is now the Co-op).

When she retired from Safeway in 1994, aged 60, she became an active member of the Madginford Women’s Institute.

Sadly her husband passed away in 1998.

In 1999, she retired from the Brownies, but not until after she had received a certificate from the Guides Association in recognition of her 40 years' service and also attended a garden party with the late Queen at Buckingham Palace.

Never one to site still, in the late 1990s, Mrs Dickinson founded the Madginford Seniors Luncheon Club, where she arranged many days out, parties, holidays and events for the senior members of the community.

Zackery Anderson said: "We knew Molly originally though our Auntie who attended Molly's senior club.

"But it was during Covid when shopping and helping her with the many tasks she needed help with, that is when we really got to know her.

"She was an extremely dedicated member of our community in Bearsted."

The plaque, unveiled by Jacob, is the second recognition the village has made of Mrs Dickinson's contribution to the community.

In 2009, she had also been presented with a trophy by the parish council acknowledging her dedication to the community

She died on March 5, 2022, aged 87.