Princess Anne hosts garden party for injured veterans at Buckingham Palace

The Princess Royal has hosted a garden party at Buckingham Palace for ex-servicemen and women and serving personnel with disabilities, illness or injuries.

Princess Anne is Patron of The Not Forgotten Association, a tri-service charity who put on the annual Garden Party, and was joined at the event by her husband, Vice Admiral Sir Tim Laurence.

Her Royal Highness was pictured meeting veterans on the lawn of Buckingham Palace, with this year’s event attended by 2,000 beneficiaries from all services.

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This included greeting a row of D-Day veterans who had fought in France, and asking whether they planned to travel back to Normandy to commemorate the upcoming 80th anniversary of the landings.

According to one Second World War veteran, she also "asked pertinent questions" about the work of the Women's Royal Naval Service (WRNS).

Marie Scott, aged 97, worked as a radio operator on D-Day at just 17 years old.

She relayed messages to the frontline on the beaches in France and spoke with the princess about her time in the WRNS.

"She asked me about my service," Ms Scott said. "I told her where I was but she'd clearly heard of Fort Southwick because she asked pertinent questions, so it was very interesting."

Of her experience using a radio for the first time to speak to men on the frontline, Ms Scott told PA: "When I lifted my lever I had the shock of my life because when he lifted his lever to respond, I was in the middle of the war.

"I could hear rapid machine gun fire, heavier cannon fire, bombs dropping, men shouting orders, men screaming – it was horrifying.

"This was war, and it was coming through my headphones."

Patricia Owtram, 100, who also served in the WRNS as a linguist, said while her conversation with the Princess wasn't long, she asked the "right questions".

"I think I may have told her we've just been over in France on a holiday, but we were in Normandy and I talked to a school there, in English I'm glad to say, and that was a very interesting experience," she said.