A NORTH-EAST woman who worked the land during the Second World War has been invited to take tea with the Queen.

Dorothy Etherington will visit London next week for an event commemorating the Women’s Land Army and Women’s Timber Corps.

Mrs Etherington, 84, from Trimdon Grange, County Durham, is among 90 veterans invited by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs to lunch at the Royal Opera House followed by tea at Buckingham Palace with the Queen and Duke of Edinburgh.

Tens of thousands of women volunteered to work in agriculture during the war, producing food for the country and freeing-up male workers to fight.

Becoming a Land Girl was the ideal way for Mrs Etherington, nee Learmount, to contribute to the war efforts.

The child of a seafaring family from South Shields, South Tyneside, she had suffered whooping cough and pneumonia when she was six and the doctor prescribed a dose of fresh air.

She stayed with a friend’s family on a farm in Shotley Bridge, near Consett, for a month and fell in love with the countryside.

After the war broke out, when she was 17, Mrs Etherington signed up for the Women’s Land Army.

She worked in Wolsingham for a month before moving to a hostel in Bishop Auckland, then to Chilton Hall, working for more than four years on a farm in Ferryhill village.

She said: “There were nine of us working with livestock, in the dairy, sowing turnips and producing corn and we had German and Italian prisoners of war working with us.

“It was hard work and very important, I felt I was doing my bit.”

Despite the hard work, Mrs Etherington has fond memories of those times, including the sense of camaraderie, the dances and lasting friendships.

She met her late husband, Bill, a farmer, and after the war they farmed in West Cornforth and Trimdon.

Last year, the great-grandmother received a badge acknowledging the debt the country owes to former members of both organisations.

She feels honoured to be invited to next week’s commemorative events.

She said: “It is wonderful to be acknowledged and for the contribution and efforts of the Land Army to be recognised.

“I was really touched and happy to represent the other girls, for us to get a little praise for keeping the country fed after all this time.”