SHE may not be out and about as she would like, but the Island's new high sheriff knows what her priorities are during the coronavirus pandemic.

Following on from her predecessor Geoff Underwood, Caroline Peel is busy using the High Sheriff's Trust to support vulnerable people on the IW at this time.

Mrs Peel, who was born in Cowes to a Bembridge family then worked in London before returning to live in Bembridge.

She told the County Press she had lived with her grandparents in Cowes before meeting her husband, Jonathan.

In London, she worked in the charity sector and for a school for children with mental disabilities as well as in property management.

The couple returned to the IW in the 1990s and moved back here full time in 2012.

Her father-in-law, Denys Peel, was IW high sheriff in 1981.

Mrs Peel is already involved with charity, principally the Bembridge Guild of the RNLI, of which she is president.

She is also vice-chairman of the Island RNLI Board and is a member of the executive committee of the Ventnor Botanic Garden Friends Society and a former commodore of Bembridge Sailing Club.

The start to her year in office was unusual to say the least, with her declaration of office conducted via the app Zoom at her kitchen table instead of the normal formalities in a lovely garden somewhere.

She said: "Standards need to be maintained and I was still wearing my uniform.

"I am hoping to continue supporting Geoff Underwood's crisis committee and, when restrictions are relaxed, to get out into schools and to meet a lot of Island people.

"I am hoping to bump into some of the people I was in the Pony Club with when I was a girl."

She has appointed April Newton as under sheriff.