TWO former Land Girls from Oxfordshire chatted with the Duke of Edinburgh at Buckingham Palace about their contribution to Britain’s war effort.

Joan Clifford, 88, and Helen Dann, 87, joined former members of the Land Army from across the country for the reception, which followed lunch at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden.

The women, who played an important role ensuring the nation was fed during the Second World War, enjoyed tea with the Queen and other royals including the Duke of Edinburgh and the Duchess of Cornwall. In the palace's ballroom, where state banquets are held and leading figures knighted, about 90 veterans, many in their 80s, sat down to sandwiches, cakes and biscuits with the Royal family.

Mrs Clifford, of Harwell Road, Sutton Courtenay, who attended Wednesday’s ceremony with her husband Arthur, said: “We had a wonderful day.

“The Duke of Edinburgh came to sit at our table and he was so informal and friendly it was like talking to a next-door neighbour.

“He shook my hand and spotted straight away that I was wearing my Land Army jumper.

“Mrs Dann was on the same table as me and the Duke also spoke to her.

“At the end of the day I saw lots of different parts of the palace because they took me through the corridors to get my mobility scooter into a lift.

“The train journey to London and the taxi rides all went very smoothly, and we were dead-dog tired when we got home at about 8.45pm.”

Mrs Clifford, a great-grandmother, left her London office job for life on an Oxfordshire farm during the war.

She was called up in 1942 and was sent on a training course in Sparsholt, to learn about life on the land before being posted to a farm near Banbury.

Mrs Dann, of Orchard Way, Chinnor, near Thame, was a Land Girl for five years and worked for farmers in Stathern, Leicestershire, throughout much of the war.

She said: “It was quite an experience to go and work on the land — I volunteered to do it.

“I was digging up potatoes and other vegetables while some of the girls were milking cows, but my favourite job was thatching roofs.

“The farmers didn't take to us at first, but by the end they seemed to mellow towards us and secretly admired us I think.”

Mrs Dann, of Orchard Way, moved to Chinnor 15 years ago to be near her daughter.

The Women's Land Army (WLA) was set up in June, 1939, to help on farms, increase the amount of food grown in Britain and replace male agricultural workers, who were away fighting the war. At its peak in 1943, there were 80,000 Land Girls who carried out everything from hoeing, ploughing and hedging to lifting potatoes, lambing and looking after poultry.

Wednesday was the anniversary of the WLA's disbandment 59 years ago on October 21, 1950.