GREAT-grandma Muriel Beavis couldn’t understand why people kept saying “thank you” to her as her daughter pushed her through the crowds at Westminster Abbey.

The crowd was thanking her because as a member of the Women’s Royal Naval Service, the WRENS, she helped keep the country going during the Second World War.

Mr Beavis, 90, from Grove, was taken to the 70th anniversary VE Day celebrations last Sunday by her daughter Janice Ellacott from Wantage.

For the mother-of-two and grandmother-of-four, there was a definite sense of déjà vu.

She was in the crowd outside Buckingham Palace on May 9, 1945 – the day after victory was declared – when King George VI and the Queen appeared on the balcony while their daughters Margaret and Elizabeth mingled with the crowds below.

She said: “It was an amazing day on so many levels.

“It was brilliant that 70 years on people are still grateful for the sacrifices that were made.”

Born in Bristol, Muriel James left school at 14 in 1939 and became a hairdresser and beautician.

The war broke out that year and soon after she joined the WRENS at Royal Naval Air Station (RNAS) Yeovilton, near Yeovil in Somerset.

She and her fellow WRENs cared for pilots returning from the war. They would line up chairs for those they were expecting to return, but often the chairs were left empty.

Towards the end of the war she was transferred to a unit based at a stately home in Notting Hill and was serving there when victory was declared on May 8, 1945.

She said: “People were singing and dancing, lined up and arms linked doing a sort of conga.

“There was a tremendous relief, great excitement and people were elated.”

After the war she returned to Bristol where she met and married her husband Gerald, who managed an electricals wholesale business, and they had two daughters.

She moved to Grove 12 years ago after her husband passed away to be closer to her daughter Janice Ellacott.

As a former WREN she was invited to Sunday’s ceremony, but Delays on her train to London almost stopped her getting into Westminster Abbey in time for the ceremony.

Mrs Ellacott, 54, a mum-of-two said: “It was a bit of a nightmare. Security told us: ‘You’ll maybe just have to push through the crowd’. But I spoke to a lovely policewoman who said: ‘No way are you going to get through there’.

“So she got mum a wheelchair and parted the crowd for us to get us to the Abbey.

“We were wheeling mum along and people just kept saying ‘thank you, thank you for what you did’.

“I think she was totally overwhelmed, it was just an awesome day and the Abbey bells were peeling just like they did on VE Day.”