Tributes to Gwent's last Land Girl who has died aged 98

Mrs Biggs lived at 7 Charles Street, Tredegar - the same street as Aneurin Bevan, who was born at number 32.

She was the daughter of Margaret and William Powell and sister to Edith and Edgar.

She had a gift for crafts and sewing, and made embroidered items for her teacher's wedding.

She later became an accomplished gardener and excellent cook.

Kay Biggs as a young woman

Soon after the start of World War Two she became a Land Army girl in an organisation established to provide additional agricultural workers to boost the nation's food production.

After attending agricultural college at Cannington, Bridgwater, she joined a workforce of 5,000 in Wales which was to expand more than 80,000 at its peak nationwide to aid Britain's war effort.

Their distinctive uniform of green sweater, corduroy riding breeches and felt hat became a feature of war time recruitment posters.

Having helped her farmer grandfather to deliver milk as a youngster, Mrs Biggs tackled 6am milking cows and gathering the harvest with an eagerness and determination that was an enduring characteristic of her life.

She worked first at Keats farm on the Magor Road at Langstone, then Samsons Court farm, before settling at Ken Weekes' farm at Langstone Court, where she met her future husband Gordon, whose agricultural college training provided additional skills so that at one stage milk production rose by 10 per cent.

Land Army girls were paid 38 shillings for a 48-hour week, with the farmer providing free bed and board.

Italian prisoners of war worked on the farm and among Mrs Biggs' recollections was their fondness for cooking including a recipe for rabbit and spaghetti.

She said: "Those men could make a meal from almost anything."

Rabbit was referred to as 'underground mutton'.

Strange as it may seem the name "rabbit and spaghetti" survives today on the label of a Shiraz wine from south Australia, a legacy from Italian POWs captured in north Africa who were sent to work in the vineyards.

Kay and Gordon Biggs

After the war Mrs Biggs became was a doctors' receptionist at the Ringland Health Centre in Newport and often encouraged doctors to sign prescriptions immediately to save elderly patients returning to the surgery.

She suffered a stroke 11 years ago and a later dementia diagnosis was borne with dignity.

She spent the last three years at Blaen-y-pant Home, Malpas, where she was joined by Gordon 20 months ago to complete 71 years of a loving marriage.

They had a son, David, and daughter, Jane. They also had two grandsons, Neil and Paul, and three great-grandchildren, Chloe, Cian and Jack.

The family remember Mrs Biggs "for her compassion, generosity and relentless strength with a heart of gold."