A HUSBAND and wife who have danced their way through life are celebrating 75 years of marriage.

Don and Daphne Warren, who live in Kirtlington near Bicester, hit the impressive milestone yesterday and even received an anniversary card from the Queen.

The village community united to help the pair plan a whirlwind wedding in 1944, after RAF airman Mr Warren was posted to Burma with just three days' notice.

Mrs Warren, 93, said: "We had been courting for two years and decided to get married. We got a special licence and I borrowed my sister's wedding dress.

"One [villager] made a cake and one made a bouquet, and others got the food ready.

"It was very much a rush."

The couple met at a dance at Kirtlington Village Hall in 1942, when Mrs Warren (nee Palmer) was aged 16 and her future husband was 21.

She had grown up in the village while Mr Warren grew up in Middlesex, but he moved to Weston on the Green with the RAF, after being called up for service at the start of World War Two.

ALSO READ: Ofsted says pupils 'brim with confidence' at this village school

Mr Warren, now aged 98, married his now-wife on a sunny day on November 4, at St Mary the Virgin Church in Kirtlington.

It was a small service and he had to quickly rally his family to make the trip to Oxfordshire to attend.

Speaking to the Oxford Mail yesterday, Mrs Warren said he caught her eye with his 'attractive' looks and his RAF uniform.

She said: "I was only 18, I didn't think my dad would let me get married, but he said we could."

They only have memories of their special day, as they did not manage to take any successful photos on their old box camera.

Mr Warren's friend from the RAF had married Mrs Warren's sister, the previous year.

After his war duties, during which he also served in Bombay and Singapore, Mr Warren returned to his wife.

They lived in rooms for two years near his home in Teddington but struggled to find a house, then struck lucky with a council house back in Kirtlington.

Mrs Warren said: "We got a brand new house, which was one of the best things to have happened to us.

"We were so happy that we could start a family, and we've been here ever since.

"We are very lucky to have neighbours who look after us on both sides."

ALSO READ: Thousands of bikers ride through county for PC Harper

The couple have two children, 67-year-old Stephen and 62-year-old Sally, as well as four grandchildren and three great-grandchildren, with another on the way.

They have been keen sequence dancers throughout their marriage, and frequented a dance group in Headington for years.

Mrs Warren said they are still both ‘on their feet’ but no longer dance, and her husband now focuses on his other pastime of painting landscape scenes with oils and watercolours.

She said their 75th anniversary has ‘crept up on us’ but that they have been ‘very happy together for all of our lives’.

She added: “He looks after me and I look after him. We look out for each other.”

Mr Warren agreed that was the secret to their long-lasting relationship, as well as never arguing about money.

After service, he worked as an electrician at the airbase in Upper Heyford, while his wife helped at the village school and local shop.

Mr and Mrs Warren marked the anniversary with a family meal.

The Queen, who will celebrate her own 72nd anniversary with Prince Philip this month, also sent a congratulatory card.

The 75th anniversary was the original diamond anniversary, but the stone is now associated with the 60th anniversary, after Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee.