'Land girls' take tea with Queen

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More than 90 veterans will join the monarch - who herself served in the war as No. 230873 Second Subaltern Elizabeth Alexandra Mary Windsor of the Auxiliary Territorial Service - in the Buckingham Palace ballroom to reminisce about their experiences.

The Duke of Edinburgh, the Duchess of Cornwall, Princess Alexandra and Princess Michael of Kent will also join them.

The Women's Land Army (WLA) and Women's Timber Corps (WTC) took on tough, physical work on the Home Front in the 1940s. The 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.

Its advertising slogan proclaimed: "For a healthy, happy job join The Women's Land Army".

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. Around 1,000 women were employed as rat catchers. The Land Girls wore uniforms of green ties and jumpers and brown felt slouch hats.

The gathering marks the anniversary of the WLA's disbandment 59 years ago on October 21, 1950. More than 6,000 "Lumber Jills" worked in the Timber Corps. They felled trees and ran sawmills, supplying the mining industry and aircraft manufacturers.

In December 2007, the Government presented surviving members of the WLA and WTC with a badge commemorating their service and acknowledging the debt the country owed them.