Goa-born Sayonara Luxton has taken charge as the mayor of the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead in southeast England. Councillor Luxton, in her 60s, had been serving as the deputy mayor of the area for the past year and was proposed to take over by former mayor Councillor Dee Quick.

The Conservative party mayor’s chosen charity will be The Household Cavalry and also actively supports the War Horse Memorial, which will be erected in Ascot and will commemorate the one million horses that lost their lives during World War I. Luxton moved from Goa to Dubai at the age of 21 to join other members of her family and had a successful career with Airbus Industries. She is in her third term as Sunningdale Councillor.

• The Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead is a Royal Borough of Berkshire, in South East England. It is home to Windsor Castle, Eton College, Legoland and Ascot Racecourse.
• The borough was formed on 1 April 1974 as a non-metropolitan district of Berkshire, under the Local Government Act 1972, from parts of the former administrative counties of Berkshire and Buckinghamshire.
• The local authority is Windsor and Maidenhead Borough Council. It became a unitary authority on 1 April 1998 with the abolition of Berkshire County Council. It is the only Royal Borough outside Greater London.