JIM and Brenda Boyes have proved the doubters wrong.

When they got married after only three months they were told it would never last, but on Saturday the couple from Wessex Way, Bicester, will celebrate their 50th anniversary.

It was love at first sight for the pair when they were serving in the British colony of Aden.

Mrs Boyes, now 71, had joined the RAF as a clerk.

She said: “I lived in Thame and it was quite a little place with nothing doing so I joined the RAF, it was an adventure.”

And after a year-and-a-half she was posted to Aden.

Mrs Boyes said: “In Aden there were always parties going on. We had to make our own entertainment as there was nothing much except sand and sea.

“We met and married about three months after we met. Everyone said it wouldn’t last, but now we are celebrating our golden wedding anniversary.”

When Mr Boyes, now 71, left the Army in 1965 he joined Oxfordshire police, serving 28 years in Banbury, Bampton and Bicester.

The couple have three children, Susan, Sharon and David and four grandsons.