The Queen has revealed that the area – understood to be where her £850,0000 Wiltshire home is located – was ‘underwater’ following the devastating flooding after continuous storms.

While chatting to members of the Military Wives Choirs – who treated Charles and Camilla to a festive performance in Buckingham Palace today – the royal recounted the damage, possibly referring to Storm Bert, two weeks ago.

One woman revealed that she is from Melksham, which faced severe floods in November. 

‘It’s lovely,’ Camilla replied. ‘Got a bit flooded the other day.’

‘It was very flooded,’ the musician agreed.

‘Where my house is was underwater,’ the Queen said. ‘You’ve never seen anything like it. It was like a seaside, you couldn’t see anything apart from a lot of birds sailing about on the water.’

It is not clear if Camilla’s house faced any damage, or just the nearby region. The royal bought her mansion, Ray Mill House, in 1994. She lived there until 2005, and, after her marriage to the then Prince Charles, kept it on as her country retreat.

Photos taken inside the dwelling in recent years certainly show that it reflects Camilla’s laid-back country roots. 

While there is no mistaking the grandeur of the dimensions of many of the rooms, the decor is low key and familial, with yellow-coloured walls and floral curtains. 

The kitchen – featuring a black aga – has yellow walls with red tiles and blue tiled flooring, while the bedrooms are also unfussy, with simple white bedding.

Wiltshire, where the property is located, was one of the areas heavily affected after Storm Bert brought 82mph winds, snow and a month’s worth of rain, leaving at least four people dead in its wake in November.

Weather warnings have also been issued this week in Wiltshire, as Storm Darragh continues to batter the UK. 

The most recent storm brought severe gusts which reached 96mph at Berry Head, Devon, and gales to the whole Irish Sea coast extending eastwards inland.

A rare red weather warning was issued for the west of England and Wales warning people not to go out unless essential and avoid making journeys by road.

Earlier today, the King and Queen were treated to a rendition of We Wish you a Merry Christmas by the Military Wives Choirs and the Royal Household Choir in the Music Room.

The Military Wives ensemble, which comprised a selection of singers from different groups around the country, also performed November Sunday, a song written in honour of the King’s birthday.

Introducing the song, Hilary Davan Wetton, the Military Wives Choirs conductor and artistic director, told the King: ‘This is the first performance of this arrangement.’ The King replied: ‘Is it? Good Lord’.

Charles and Camilla stood in the centre of the Music Room to hear the performance of the song which was released as a single on November 1, two weeks before the King’s 76th birthday.

Written by John McLaren, composer and lyricist, November Sunday recounts the ‘chilly foggy Sunday night’ of King Charles’s birth on 14 November, 1948.

After the Military Wives performed their single, they were joined by a choir comprising palace staff to sing We Wish You A Merry Christmas accompanied by the band of the Household Cavalry.

Before they began, Camilla glanced round the room to see who was going to sing and spotted equerry Lieutenant Colonel Johnny Thompson.

‘Johnny?’ the Queen asked, encouraging him to join the singing. Lyric sheets were passed around the room to encourage everyone to join in.

After hearing We Wish You A Merry Christmas, the King quipped: ‘Thank you very much. We might have some figgy pudding!’

Speaking afterwards Katrina Emerton, from Wimbish whose husband Lee is in the Army, said: ‘I wished the King a happy belated birthday and he laughed and said ‘Please don’t remind me!’

‘He was genuinely really interested in asking about us and we were taking about his birthday.’

Charles asked wheelchair user Stephanie Quintrell, whose husband serves with the Royal Electrical Mechanical Engineers, whether the palace was accessible for her. 

She said: ‘The King said ‘Did you manage to get in okay with your wheelchair.’ I told him it was fine as I came up in the lift.’

Alexandra Kulanthai, from Jakarta, whose late husband Joseph served with the RAF but died in February from stomach cancer, said: ‘The King is just like a father figure. When I said ‘my late husband’ he said ‘I’m so sorry’. He said that recently he had been speaking to the President of Jakarta.’

The King marked his 76th birthday on November 14. At the beginning of November the choir released their song ‘November Sunday’ to honour the monarch’s birthday and to reflect the close links between the Armed Forces and the Royal Family.

The music and lyrics were written by John McLaren, the song arranged by Sean Hargreaves and Steve Turner, and the single was produced by Sean Hargreaves. 

Hilary Davan Wetton conducts the choir on the single. There wasn’t time in the King’s diary to hear a performance of the single on the King’s birthday when he was in Deptford to see a Coronation Food project.

At the time, the King wrote a letter to the Military Wives Choirs, in which he said: ‘I am writing to express my warmest possible gratitude for your very kind early birthday present, in the form of your new single, November Sunday.

While those of us of a certain age may feel the need for any such birthday celebrations is in inverse proposition to our advancing years, I am none the less deeply touched by your wonderfully thoughtful tribute.’

Elsewhere Camilla appeared full of Christmas cheer today as she joined a ‘Festive Spread’ lunch at The Amadeus in London.

During the event, the royal, 77, who donned a cream shirt and elegant green jacket from Anna Valentine, warned Christmas dinner guests to ‘hold onto their hair’ as she helped flambé a giant 22lb figgy pudding.

Her Majesty admitted she was a ‘bit nervous’ as she poured an entire jug of brandy over the 14-inch desert at a lunch for the Royal Voluntary Service, watching it go up in flames.

She told volunteers, who gathered for the launch of ‘Festive Spread’ – a community lunch aimed at making sure no one spends the Christmas season alone – that she was ‘eternally grateful for everything you do’; she added: ‘As I always say, this country would collapse without you.’

The RVS will host 70 of the events across the country. Today’s, at The Amadeus in West London, was attended by the charity’s ambassadors, Felicity Kendal and Elaine Paige, with the Queen spending half an hour meeting guests and volunteers.

Catherine Johnstone, the CEO, told assembled guests that the Queen would be joining them shortly before she arrived, saying that Her Majesty would rather they did not worry about curtsying or what to call her and concentrate on enjoying themselves.

Laughing, she described her role of lighting the Christmas pudding as a ‘career-limiting moment’.

Lunch was made with the help of students at West London College, who were the first people to meet the Queen as she arrived.