Tom Gray was awarded the Thank You For Your Service quilt on Sunday at the district council meeting of RSL sub-branches, on behalf of the NSW RSL Auxiliaries' central council.

The Dubbo RSL sub-branch president was the eighth recipient of the honour, receiving a quilt hand made by Dubbo RSL Auxiliary member Elizabeth Allen.

"I'm honoured, a bit overwhelmed, but it's very nice," Mr Gray said.

"It's very, very beautiful I'll be hanging it up."

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State coordinator of RSL Auxiliaries' Pauline James initiated the project in 2018. The quilts are presented to RSL NSW returned service personnel who have given dedicated service to the welfare of veterans and RSL NSW.

Bestowing the Thank You For Your Service Quilt on Mr Gray held special significance for Ms James, who grew up at Coonamble.

Her cousin, William Wayne Donnelly of Dubbo, was killed in Vietnam at the age of 19.

"I know the work that Tom does for the community, and for his sub branch. I've known Tom since 1978, he was in the navy with my husband," Ms James said.

Mr Gray spent 20 years in the Australian Navy and was deployed to places such as Borneo and Vietnam.

He has spent more than 26 years with the Dubbo RSL sub-branch, before taking on the role of president. In his role he visits elderly veterans in hospital and assists with pension and welfare needs.

Mr Gray also ensures the younger returned veterans of Dubbo are being looked after with regular social catch ups.

Mr Gray was modest about the decades of service he's given to veterans at home, but said the Dubbo RSL sub-branch were "lucky" to have a number of young people joining them.

"We're very lucky, a lot of sub branches don't have the youth that we have," he said.

"We've got a good committee, a good mob of young Afghanistan and East Timor guys who are in our sub- branch now.

"We do a lot of socialising together, we go to the rugby ... a lot of us go to the gym and have coffee meetings, so we try to stick together as much as we can.

"The bottom line, we've been through the same theatres of war and peace and now it's time to bind together and try to assist some of our younger and older blokes who are still suffering."

Ms Allen and Ms James thanked Lorraine Burrell from Gilgandra for her generosity quilting the blanket.

The NSW RSL Auxiliary encourage any men and women who wish to join to contact Elizabeth Allen.

"We have some very talented members out there," Ms James said.