When Margot Bettles swapped her make-up counter job for life on a farm her family said she would never cope.

Yet the 82-year-old proved everyone wrong when she spent three years working for the Women's Land Army during the Second World War.

Mrs Bettles was one of a gang of 50 girls who moved from farm to farm in East Sussex doing their bit for the war effort.

It was difficult work and the girls worked long hours to ensure fields would be filled with the crops needed to feed the nation.

Mrs Bettles kept in contact with many of the gang and organised a reunion at Portslade Town Hall this week to mark the Queen's Golden Jubilee.

She said: "People enjoyed the celebration I organised for the silver jubilee and asked if something could be done for the golden one.

"It was great fun to catch up and reminisce about our years during the war.

"About 70 people turned up. We had a great time."

Now living in Southwick, Mrs Bettles has vivid memories of her time as a land girl.

She said: "I was into make-up and keeping my fingernails clean so my family couldn't believe it when I said I was going into the land army.

"They said I would never cope because the work was so hard and grubby. But I wanted to do my bit.

"My husband did not want me to go into the forces. In those days a woman needed her husband's permission to join up so I just couldn't just go along and do it anyway.

"You didn't need permission for the land army so I decided to join."

Mrs Bettles and the rest of the gang travelled around the county in an old coach and stayed with landladies.

She said: "Some of the landladies were nice but others were mean with the rations.

"We were supposed to be in bed early but some of the girls used to sneak out for dates when they could."

The pay was 42 shillings a week but 23 shillings had to be handed over to the landladies.

The work included clearing hedges and ditches, ploughing fields, planting crops and harvesting them.

Mrs Bettles still has a scar on her leg where a friend accidentally cut her with a scythe while they were both clearing a ditch.

Because Sussex is so close to France, the women constantly kept an eye out for German planes and the notorious doodlebugs.

The doodlebug engine would always stop shortly before the bomb exploded.

Mrs Bettles said: "You would see them going over to London and if you heard the engine go silent you had to throw yourself flat on the ground.

"They used to leave enormous craters and the heat was intense. One day we were picking potatoes in a field and had filled the cart when a bomb went off.

"The horse pulling the cart reared up, spilling all the potatoes."

Despite the hard work, being in the land army meant Mrs Bettles made some very close friends.

She said: "We had to deal with cuts, aching muscles and tiredness and would find ourselves in icy cold water on winter mornings but it was worth it.

"We are all proud to have done our bit."