Judi Dench is feeling emotional as she accepts an honour with a strong connection to her Dublin-born war hero father.

The Oscar-winner has been appointed patron of the Prince of Wales’s Leinster Regiment (Royal Canadians) Association, in memory of her father’s distinguished service during the First World War.

Her dad, Captain Reginald Arthur Dench, was commissioned into the Leinsters in 1916 and went on to win a Military Cross.

While the regiment was disbanded in 1922, the association is described as keeping their memory alive and the ‘Leinster family’ together.

It was formed in 1881 through the British Army’s merger of two antecedent regiments and was allocated a recruiting area covering the former King’s County (now Offaly), Longford, Meath, Queen’s County (now Laois) and Westmeath in Leinster, and a depot at Crinkill Barracks in Birr.

All British Army infantry regiments in the 26 counties were disbanded in 1922 upon the birth of the Irish Free State.

Originally from Dublin, Captain Dench joined the 7th (Service) Leinster Battalion in September 1916 and went on to distinguish himself on the First World War battlefields, and was awarded a Military Cross.

Following the war, he returned to Dublin to study medicine, where he met Olave Jones and married in 1924.

He then moved to York in England, where he worked as a GP and took part in amateur dramatics.

Upon accepting the role, Judi said: ‘I don’t know how to put into words my feelings on being asked to be honorary patron of the Leinsters.

‘To have a link in this way is better than anything I could ever imagine.’