The Lord-Lieutenant of West Sussex takes tour of Shoreham Fort before presenting King's Award for Voluntary Service

Friends chairman and founder Gary Baines, who first had the dream of restoring the fort as a 14-year-old boy, led the tour for Lady Emma, Deputy Lieutenants John Barclay and Peter Webb, and Chief Constable Jo Shiner.

He took them into the fort's nissen hut, which is recorded as the last usable First World War nissen hut in the country, and gave a talk on the history of the site and the work the volunteers have been doing.

Gary said: "We are now actually the last fort of our kind to use a carnot wall and caponier system in the world. That is why it is so important that we are now a Scheduled Ancient Monument, which is the same as Stonehenge."

Shoreham Fort was the prototype to fortifications like the much larger Fort Nelson. Gary added that with its links to the 1st Sussex Artillery and the Royal Sussex Regiment, it was also the only museum for a regiment in Sussex.

The Friends run rifle training sessions for young people, where they can strip down a machine gun. They have been using original weapons but with gun laws changing, to plan for the future, they arranged for Northbrook College in Durrington to make plastic machine guns, which they will be able to use as props going forward.

Gary said: "It is as much about bringing history to life and the best way we can teach kids is to let them physically do what the soldiers were doing. Even if they don't comprehend it then, they might be watching a war film in 20 years time and thinking, I've actually held one of those."

He played a recording of Martin Leonard Landfried sounding the Charge of the Light Brigade and showed Lady Emma where he stood, as bandmaster, in a picture of soldiers at Shoreham Fort.

Gary explained the fort was later used as the first film studio complex, which was started at Shoreham Fort by Francis Lyndhurst, actor Nicholas Lyndhurst's grandfather.

The tour visited the south caponier, where 26 tonnes of rubble were removed by 10 volunteers over six days, and Lady Emma was shown the west magazine and its experimental lobby, where Lancing and Sompting Men in Sheds built all the woodwork, using blocks and wedges to avoid drilling into the walls.

They also visited the new Second World War air raid shelter, where special effects will be put in to give the full effect, and the First World War trench, which is listed as a War Memorial. The trench was made with concrete sandbags and designed with disabled access in mind. Fittingly, it overlooks the South Downs, where the training camps were spread out.

Lady Emma said: "I'm absolutely overwhelmed by what you've done here. It's fantastic, absolutely amazing. You have saved something which is deeply important. It's living history and it's so important that we never forget."

Deputy Lieutenant John Barclay read out the citation from King Charles III before Lady Emma presented Gary with the engraved commemorative crystal.

Gary thanked all the volunteers and said: "It's not all down to me. I had the dream as a 14-year-old boy but it's the community that makes it reality."