The WRVS, formerly known as the Women’s Royal Voluntary Service, has excised the letter W from its name as part of a 75th anniversary rebrand designed to attract more men.
The charity was formed by women during World War II to bolster efforts on the Home Front but subsequently morphed into offering assistance to older people living independently.
Now, around 6,000 of its 40,000 volunteers are men and in a bid to attract more the charity is formally ditching its W preface.
Re-launched as the Royal Voluntary Service the charity is redoubling its efforts in light of Britain’s changing demographics which are placing more demands on the service than ever before.
RVS chairman David McCullough said: "We know that more older people than ever are going to need the support that our volunteers provide, which is why we are changing our name to make it clear we are not a charity that only supports women or just wants female volunteers.
"I'm really proud of the fact that since we were founded 75 years ago as the Women's Voluntary Services, we have inspired volunteers to meet the main social challenges of the time and today we're doing exactly the same.
"As the state contracts and the number of older people grow we are able to provide a solution through our volunteers who want to make a positive difference to the lives of the older people they support."