A FORMER soldier and his sweetheart will today celebrate 60 years of wedded bliss.

Margaret and Vince Hanlon celebrate their diamond wedding anniversary today but the couple would never have met if army service corps driver Vince had not been reprimanded for going AWOL (absent without leave) for his 21st birthday.

Vince, sent to The Bendricks, then met Margaret while at a dance at Sully hospital.

Ten months later the couple married at St Helen’s RC church, in Barry, because a grandmother would not attend if the non-Catholic couple married elsewhere. Snow left them sliding on the ground and the couple later honeymooned in Brighton.

Former Bake House employee, cleaner and Springbank nursing home carer Margaret and retired long-distance HGV lorry driver Vince will celebrate their marriage milestone at Cadoxton Conservative Club – where they had their wedding reception 60 years ago - on Saturday, February 28, with daughters Sian Thurston, 58, Karen West, 55 and son-in-law John West, 60.

Also marking the occasion with them will be grandchildren David Dowson, 40, Gemma Dowson, 33, and Liam Hockey, 27, and other family and friends.

80-year-old Margaret, of Cadoxton, Barry, said: “We have had a good life – a very good marriage, a happy marriage. The secret is sharing and we have never had a big row. We have never argued over anything."

Vince, 83, formerly of Whitehaven, Cumbria, added that he had first had to ingratiate himself with Margaret’s father.

He said: “I said I wanted to get engaged. He said: ‘A waste of money. Carry on’.

“I came down on my last 14 months and I met my wife.”