Hundreds flock to catch glimpse of Meghan Markle as she joins royal family for Christmas Day service

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Hundreds of people flocked to the Queen’s Sandringham estate on Christmas Day to capture a glimpse of Meghan Markle and Prince Harry.

The couple, who announced their engagement in November, spoke to well-wishers after attending a traditional service at St Mary Magdalene Church.

They arrived alongside the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge for the 11am service, and were joined by the Queen, the Duke of Edinburgh, Prince Charles and Camilla.

Ms Markle, who broke with tradition by attending the event with the Queen before she and Harry are married, walked arm-in-arm with her fiance as they made the short journey from Sandringham House to the church in Norfolk.

She seemed at ease, smiling and chatting as they walked alongside William and Kate, who is pregnant with her third child.

The Queen, who was too unwell to attend last year's service after being struck down with a cold, arrived separately with the Duchess of Cornwall in a royal Bentley and joined the group from the house.

Among the crowd was Judith Wallis, who was sitting in a wheelchair and is staying at the neighbouring Park House Hotel on her first Christmas Day visit to Sandringham.

She said Harry recognised her teddy bear called Maureen, which is a mascot for Armed Forces charity SSAFA, and her hat, which bore the Gurkha regiment emblem.

She said Ms Markle spoke to them too.

"She said lots of things," said Ms Wallis, who is in her 70s and from Chesterfield. "She was very, very lovely."

Tess Gilder, manager of Park House, which describes itself as a unique hotel for disabled people, was with Ms Wallis.

She said of Ms Markle: "She was just so natural, so lovely."

She added: "I think they just wished us a Happy Christmas and were interested in whether we had been before."

Emily Randall, 31, was first in the queue to get into the area by the church, with her boyfriend Jamie Mackay, 42.

She said they set out from Chichester in Sussex before 10pm on Christmas Eve and arrived at Sandringham at about 2am.

"We thought it would be really busy," she said. "We looked online. We were the first ones here, camping in the dark for two hours."

She said they had missed the Queen when she visited Chichester, so decided to make the trip to Sandringham.

The Queen and the Duchess also made the return journey by car after the service but the rest of the family, including the Duke of Edinburgh, walked back to the house.

Ms Markle was wearing a long, wide-collared camel wrap coat with a brown felt hat and brown leather knee-length boots.

The coat, by luxury Canadian brand Sentaler, is made from baby alpaca wool and sells from £986 on the company's website.

She was clutching a brown leather Chloe pixie bag, which sells for £1,400. The bag looked new but it was not known if it was a Christmas gift.

Back at Sandringham House, the royal family traditionally indulge in turkey, reared at Sandringham, before settling down to watch TV including the Queen's Christmas speech.

Additional reporting by PA