THE new High Sheriff of Somerset, who was installed at Wells Cathedral last week, has chosen St Margaret’s Somerset Hospice as one of her charities for the year.

Pat Hunt, of Perris, Hatch Beauchamp, succeeds Jon Alvis, of Winford, in an office which goes back 1,000 years and is responsible for upholding loyalty to the monarch, the wellbeing of the judiciary, and supporting charitable works.

A native of Hartham, Wiltshire, Mrs Hunt is the widow of chartered accountant John Hunt of Taunton company Albert Goodman.

She has been a magistrate in Taunton Deane since 1983, where she is a council member of the Somerset branch of the Magistrates’ Association.

A member of Taunton Inner Wheel and twice its president, she has been involved in several charities, notably Riding for the Disabled for 25 years, and is currently vice-president of St Margaret’s. Her home is frequently the venue for fund-raising efforts for these charities, and also for Hatch Beauchamp Village Hall and St John the Baptist Church, where she is a member of the Parochial Church Council.

Widowed in 1997, she has two children and four grandchildren, and lists her interests as family, golf, skiing, horseracing, ballet and travel.