Two paintings from the Prime Minister's Chequers Estate in Buckinghamshire commissioned by Margaret Thatcher at the height of the Falklands War are to be sold at auction next month.

After meeting artist Jonathan Warrender to talk about the paintings, the Iron Lady took her leave by saying: "Now I must see what is happening in those bloody islands."

The works, painted in 1982, were commissioned after Mrs Thatcher saw one of the artist’s paintings in the home of a close friend.

The two oil paintings are expected to fetch up to £5,000 each when they go to auction at Dreweatts Modern and Contemporary Art sale in Newbury, Berkshire, next month.

Mrs Thatcher, who died in April 2013, aged 87, was three years into her first term as Prime Minister when she commissioned the works from Mr Warrender, now 68.

She was said to have admired one of the artist’s paintings in the residence of her close friend Lord Hector Laing, who offered to gift her the commissioned paintings of Chequers for her personal collection.

The Chequers estate, also known as Chequers Court, is the 16th Century country residence of the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom at the foot of the Chiltern Hills in Bucks.

The Grade I listed manor has served as the country home of the Prime Minister since 1921.

In April of 1982, Mr Warrender was invited for an intimate lunch at the residence, and dined with Mrs Thatcher and her husband Denis, along with Lord Laing and his wife Marion.

Just weeks before the meeting, Britain had become involved in an undeclared war with Argentina, which had invaded British Overseas Territories including the Falklands Islands in the South Atlantic.

Recalling the surreal meeting in his 2013 memoir, Mr Warrender said: “As we sat down I remember having to overcome a hot moment of panic due to my extreme proximity to the Prime Minister.”

Following lunch, Mr Warrender accompanied Mrs Thatcher on a walk in the gardens, to find a suitable location from which to paint the house.

As the Prime Minister took her leave, Mr Warrender recalls her complaining, ‘And now I must see what is happening in those bloody islands...’.

The artist added in his memoir: “What an irony it was for me, that at the same time as Mrs Thatcher handed the historians a pen, she handed me a brush.”

Mrs Thatcher’s two commissioned paintings – one giving a bird’s-eye-view perspective of the manor which Mr Warrender was renowned for – hung in her London flat in Belgravia for years, but are now being put on sale to the public.

Francesca Whitham, Head of Modern & Contemporary Sales at Dreweatts , said the paintings were evidence of Mrs Thatcher's soft side.

She said: "I think it reiterates that the hard nosed ‘Iron Lady’ had a sensitive and thoughtful side.

"At the same time as making important decisions which changed the course of history, she was making the decision to record a memory of Chequers through the eyes of an artist - a memory of her time serving the nation which she could keep for her personal collection."

Mr Warrender's paintings, which he began in May 1982 and took just three weeks to complete, will feature in Dreweatts’ Modern and Contemporary Art sale on March 15, with an estimated sale price of between £3,000 and £5,000.

The Falklands War, as it came to be known, lasted for 74 days and ended when Argentina surrendered on June 14, 1982, returning the islands to British control.

A total of 649 Argentine and 255 British military personnel died during the conflict, as well as three Falkland islanders.

Margaret Thatcher served as Prime Minister between 1979 and 1990, and as Leader of the Conservative Party from 1975 to 1990.

She was Britain’s first ever female Prime Minister, and the longest-serving Prime Minister of the 20th century.

Her nickname, the Iron Lady, came from her uncompromising politics and style of leadership. The mother of two died on April 8, 2013, after suffering a stroke.