NINETY-two-year-old widow Frances Graham took a ringside seat - a few yards from Prime Minister David Cameron - at a moving ceremony to mark the 70th anniversary of VJ Day.

The widow of Stourbridge war hero Jeff Graham, who fought in the perilous jungles of Burma from August 1944, was invited to the "Drumhead" service in Horse Guards parade in London on Sunday, which commemorated the surrender of Japan and the end of the Second World War.

The Royal British Legion gave Mrs Graham - proudly wearing her late husband's war medals - pride of place seating among veterans and surviving next of kin, getting a bird's eye view of the dignitaries, including Prince Charles and Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall.

Later she went with her son, Alan, to a tea party in the grounds of Westminster Abbey.

Mrs Graham, of Collis Street, Amblecote, also told other veterans during the day of her own wartime role, inspecting parts for Wellington bombers in Halesowen and later helping to build Spitfires at Castle Bromwich.

"She was initially reluctant to go but ended up having a whale of a time, although it was a very emotional and moving occasion," said Alan Graham, aged 66, of Cemetery Road, Stourbridge, who spent 22 years in the army.

Private Jeff Graham, who died about 20 years ago, aged 72, originally joined the navy and took part in Operation Taxable, which diverted the Germans away from the D-Day landings in June 1944.

"He went out on one of 19 vessels, only three of which came back, including the one he was on," said Alan.

The following year Private Graham was transferred to the army, into the Royal Welch Fusiliers, and shipped out to Burma.

"He was up country in the jungle involved in counter-insurgency," said Alan.

"Never to his dying day did he speak of anything specific that happened in Burma because of the whole horror of the thing.

"What happened was implied more than said.

"All I know is he was a hero."

Private Graham - whose good friend, Walter Downing, of King William Street, Amblecote, was a Japanese prisoner of war - later spent his working life in the glass industry in the Brierley Hill and Stourbridge area.

VJ Day brought to an end the terrifying ordeal faced by British servicemen in the Far East, during which tens of thousands were forced to endure brutal prisoner of war camps, where there was a lack of food and water and disease was rife.

It is estimated there were 71,000 British and Commonwealth casualties of the war against Japan.