TWO 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 Land Girls from around the country for the palace treat last Wednesday, which followed lunch at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden.

The women 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 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 straightaway 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, was a Land Girl for five years and worked for farmers in Stathern, Leicestershire.

She said: “It was quite an experience.

“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.”