FORMER actress and drama teacher Eliner Rutherford is to be honoured at the arts showcase she holds dear.

Mrs Rutherford, president of the Harrogate Competitive Festival for Music, Speech and Drama will be made a Fellow of the Society of Teachers of Speech and Drama (STSD), during the festival's run next month.

It opens on Friday at St John Fisher RC High School and continues over three weekends with March 7 to 9 set aside for the acting and reading classes which over the years have been won by many of Mrs Rutherford's students.

And the woman who first moved to Harrogate as a young actress to become a member of the local repertory company will, at the age of 92, become one of the first Fellows of the STSD - honoured by its chairman Pam Clarke who is one of the festival's adjudicators at a ceremony on March 7.

Fellow STSD member Jean Guy said: "It is an honour Eliner richly deserves. She has long been regarded as one of the society's pioneers and has given valued service to further its aims."

The festival, renowned as one of the best in the North has attracted 2,863 performers to its 200 classes for singers, instrumentalists, choirs and speech experts.