A COUPLE who met at a town dance in Wantage after the Second World War have celebrated 60 years of marriage.

Reg East, now 83, offered to walk future-wife June home at the end of his first night out after being de-mobbed from the army in 1948.

June East, 81, said: “When we got home he said: ‘Would you care to string along with me to the pictures tomorrow night?’ “I did not think he would be there, but he was, and that bit of string is still going after 60 years.”

The couple first knew each other as teenagers in Wantage but socialised with different groups of friends.

It was only when Mr East returned from Burma, where he had been overseeing war crime trials after the Second World War, that they became a couple.

Two years later they were married in Wantage Register Office, moving to their first home in Challow. Mr East worked at the Cowley Morris factory for 25 years, and the couple have lived in Wantage Road, Harwell, for 52 years.

They received a card of congratulations from the Queen, and held a party for family and friends on Saturday night in the village hall.

Mrs East said: “We did not have a reception when we got married, but we have made up for it since. I love partying.”

Among the guests were their son Charles, 59, daughter Deamma, 50, and their four grandchildren.

Picture: Antony Moore