SALLY Stone has finally called it a day – retiring at the age of 80.

And her retirement coincided with her receiving a medal for her work as a Land Girl during the war.

For the past 21 years Mrs Stone has worked at Cherwood House Nursing Home, in Bicester, getting up at the crack of dawn to serve breakfast every day.

But she has now decided to hang up her apron and finally put her feet up.

When grandmother Mrs Stone casually revealed she had been in the Land Army, staff at the nursing home decided to do something about it and set about getting her a medal.

And yesterday, in front of residents and her family, she was presented with a medal and a certificate, signed by Gordon Brown.

Mrs Stone, of Mallards Way, Bicester, worked at several farms in Lincolnshire during the Second World War, milking cows and collecting eggs.

She said: “I was 17 when I joined the Land Army and was in there for two-and-a-half years.

“The reason I left was they put me with an old couple who used to collect eggs at 4.30am – and go to bed at 9pm. I couldn’t go out anywhere – I was only 19.”

Afterwards she signed up for the RAF as a ‘bat woman’ – someone who polished officers’ shoes – but quickly decided it was not for her.

So she transferred to the medical wing, trained as a medical orderly and in 1949 applied to work in British hospitals in Egypt.

A year later she met her husband Ken – the couple married in Egypt and had two children, Julie and Michael.

Mrs Stone said she enjoyed a “lovely” wedding, and paid just five shillings for the dress, much less than she would have had to pay in England.

Because Mr Stone was in the RAF, the family lived in Jersey, Sussex and Germany before settling in Bicester It was on her return to Bicester that she took a post at the RAF officers’ mess – in the same building that now houses Cherwood House.

She said: “I used to be top dog. When they had dining events, I would serve the top table.

“When they said they were closing it down I thought my entire world had fallen in.”

After it closed she worked at COD Bicester – now the Defence Storage and Distribution Agency – for 12 years, before taking on a job at the nursing home in 1988.

Lyn Anders, care home manager, said: “I think it’s an amazing feat – and to work up to 80 is just incredible.”

On Wednesday, former Land Girls Joan Clifford, 88, of Sutton Courtenay, and Helen Dann, of Chinnor, will join others from across the UK who also worked for the service to be thanked by the Queen at a ceremony in London, after first enjoying a gala lunch at the Royal Opera House, in Covent Garden.