A Royal British Legion club has been forced to axe its 90-year link with the legion's national body – to save both the club and the local legion branch from possible closure.

The Dartmouth club has been renamed the Anzac Club following the decision to disaffiliate from the Royal British Legion.

The move came after major changes to the national rule book.

Officials feared closure of the club would have handed the purpose-built building in Anzac Street to the national legion organisation – which would have been free to sell it off.

More than 80 per cent of the club's 370 members voted to cut ties with the Royal British Legion clubs and go it alone.

But club chairman Graham Heal said the membership had insisted the annual Poppy Appeal would continue to be run from the Anzac Street building.

'They also insisted that the branch be allowed to hold their meetings here and that the club would provide full facilities for Remembrance Sunday.'

Club secretary Bobbie Small added: 'This is not something that we wanted to do. It is something that has been forced upon us to save the Royal British Legion club and the branch in Dartmouth.'

The decision has come following major legion rule changes which have forbidden club officers from holding officer roles in the local legion branch at the same time.

They have also banned clubs from raising cash for any charity other than the Poppy Appeal.

At the moment, club officers sit on both the branch and the club committees and there are real fears that if they are forced to stand down either the branch or the club could fold because there is no one to take their place.

On top of that, the club regularly raises funds for local charities such as the Brownies and the Sea Scouts and also teams up to share fundraising with the Britannia Royal Naval College which supports the Help the Heroes charity.

Graham said the club, which contains a rented flat on the top floor, a chiropodist business in the basement and the club with one bar and a bar and function room on two floors in between, had been purpose built in the mid 1980s – paid for by its members.

He added: 'If the club was to close the building would go to the legion or a like- minded charity and could be sold.'

Currently, club members pay a £6 membership fee.

That will be going up to £17 to help cover the cost of breaking links with the Royal British Legion which includes bills for printing new rule books and membership cards.

'It has cost us,' said Bobbie. 'However, next year we would like to reduce the fees.'

The changes took place at the end of last month – including the new name and new sign over the club door, named after Anzac Street which itself is named after the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps which famously fought at Gallipoli during the First World War.

The club was founded in 1919, a year after the end of the First World War, in Fairfax Place, Dartmouth, as the Comrades of the Great War. It affiliated as a Royal British Legion Club in 1921.

Bobbie said that the branch will still continue to raise cash for the Poppy Appeal as usual – which amounted to £8,500 last year and £9,500 the year before that.

The club is planning a revamp which will involve shifting some of the legion memorabilia out of the main bar.