Brown welcomes Women of Steel

Prime Minister Gordon Brown paid tribute yesterday to the "Women of Steel" who helped keep Britain's steelworks running during the Second World War. He is pictured with Kathleen Roberts, left, and Kit Sollitt, both 90.

Hundreds of women worked in the foundries and steel mills of South Yorkshire producing metal for the tanks, guns and planes needed to defeat Nazi Germany.

Yesterday four veterans of the steelworks visited 10 Downing Street as representatives of more than 100 surviving "Women of Steel".

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Ms Roberts and Ms Sollitt, Dorothy Slingsby, 88, and Ruby Gascoigne, 87, all from Sheffield, travelled to London on board a train specially renamed the Women of Steel Express. They received a special letter of thanks from Veterans Minister Kevan Jones and met Sheffield MPs at the House of Commons before going to Number 10.

Ms Roberts told BBC Radio 4 that it had been a "wonderful" day.

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