Two friends and near neighbours in a street at Duncton are sharing a special honour – 61 years after their significant contribution to the nation at war.
Win Matthews and Dorothy Greenwood worked on the land and in forestry between 1942 and 1947, as members of the Women's Land Army and the Timber Corps.
And, coincidentally on Mrs Matthews' 85th birthday, the village postman delivered to each of the
m the badge and certificate marking their years of invaluable service.
The arrival of the awards has prompted many memories of the war years to come surging back.
Mrs Matthews was a trained embroiderist but ended up on a fruit farm in Kirdford after she and her parents were bombed out of their London home.
Her brother and younger sister were already in the village, having been evacuated there.
She recalled: "My sister found a domestic job with a farmer and his family and there was a tied cottage available.
"He was able to offer the cottage to us if I joined the Land Army and worked for him.
"It was hard to begin with but I did enjoy it. We had some great fun on
the farm.
"I remember learning to drive a little tractor from the orchard to where the fruit was stored.
"It was all down the main road, but you didn't need a licence in those days."
Mrs Matthews, who was widowed in 2000, had met her future husband Fred in a pub at Kirdford.
He was a local lad who was home on leave from the Royal Navy.
Her two sisters were also in the Land Army, one on a pig farm at Tillington and the other on a chicken farm at Henfield.
Mrs Greenwood, who is also 85, left her native Salford, Manchester, to train in the Timber Corps in Suffolk where, she said, the women recruits learned everything from working in the sawmills to driving timber lorries.
"I was posted to Arundel and spent the five years in that area.
"I was a timber measurer, which meant that when a tree was felled, I had to measure it and work out the cubic feet. I also worked in the sawmill, doing the bookwork.
"I have never regretted it, not for one minute!" she added.
For a time she was billeted with the mayor and mayoress of Arundel and has a recollection of baked bean sandwiches.
"But when you are hungry, you eat anything."
After the war, during which Mrs Greenwood met her future husband
William, she was offered a permanent job at a timber works at Bognor Regis but had to decline as she needed to return to Manchester to nurse her sick mother.
She and Mrs Matthews agree it's a great thrill to receive their wartime
honours – at last.
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