The Queen meets gold medal winners to celebrate 50 years of Winston Churchill Memorial Trust

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Joined by Prince Philip to greet sporting greats at Buckingham Palace
Trust set up in 1965 as living legacy to wartime Prime Minister
Monarch presented with Churchill medallion by artist Brian Clarke

Published: 14:58 EST, 18 March 2015 | Updated: 16:25 EST, 18 March 2015

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The Queen gleamed in a tailored apple green silk dress and matching jacket as she mingled with sporting greats at a Winston Churchill Memorial Trust event tonight.

She was joined by the Duke of Edinburgh as they met famous names such as Dame Mary Peters, who won gold in the pentathlon in the 1972 Olympics, and paralympian Baroness Grey-Thompson.

The Trust was set up in 1965 as the legendary wartime Prime Minister's living legacy.

Her Majesty meets Tanni Grey-Thompson at Winston Churchill Trust 50th anniversary event

Prince Philip holds a medallion

Since then, more than 5,000 British citizens have been awarded fellowships by the Trust, from more than 100,000 applicants, to travel overseas to study areas of topical and personal interest.

The Queen, wearing a Karl Ludwig dress and jacket in green silk with a woven geometric pattern, was given a medallion bearing the photographer Yousuf Karsh's image of Churchill.

She showed the medallion to Prince Philip and the pair both studied it with interest.

Fellows from every decade since 1965 represented the trust at the event. Both Baroness Grey-Thompson and Dame Mary Peters had fellowships from the trust.

The female athletes explained what the sporting trust had done for their careers.

Dame Mary said after meeting the royal couple: 'I used the fellowship to help me train for the Olympics in 1972. I was in Belfast, it was the height of the Troubles, and I didn't have a running track.

The Queen meets Dame Mary Peters at Buckingham Palace bash to honour Britain's sporting greats

'The fellowship gave me the opportunity to go to Pasadena in California to train for six weeks.

'There was sunshine every day, I had the most amazing time training in May and June, and was successful in Munich in the September.'

Baroness Grey-Thompson said: 'My fellowship was in 1993. I went to Perth in Australia to look at their methods of identifying talent, and although those methods are very good, it was useful for me to realise that they would not work here because their weather is so much better and they have a smaller population.

'That was useful for me to know when I joined the board of UK Sport in 1997.'

At the time of her visit to Australia, she had competed in two of her five paralympics, collecting four of her 11 golds.

The royals inspect the memorial medallion designed by artist Brian Clarke (left)

The Queen meets Major General Jamie Balfour, Director General of the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust

Her Majesty meets artist Brian Clarke, who designed the commemorative Winston Churchill Medallion, as she hosts the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust Reception at Buckingham Palace

The commemorative Winston Churchill Medallion, by designer Brian Clarke, which features a pixellated portrait of the great political leader in blue, with a gold rim