THREE former members of the Women's Land Army and Timber Corps (WLA) from Suffolk have been invited to take tea with the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh as part of an event in London next week.

THREE former members of the Women's Land Army and Timber Corps (WLA) from Suffolk have been invited to take tea with the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh as part of an event in London next week.

Around 90 women from across the UK, each with a guest, have accepted an invitation from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) to lunch at the Royal Opera House next Wednesday, followed by tea at Buckingham Palace, in celebration of their service on the home front during the second world war.

All the Suffolk representatives - Lucy Ransom from Hadleigh, Dorothea Allen, from Lowestoft, and Daphne Stebbings, from Shotley - received their WLA Veterans' badges last year and were nominated by the Lord Lieutenant of Suffolk, Lord Tollemache, to attend the event.

Lord Tollemache said: “There is no question that they will have a wonderful and memorable day.”