Diamond couplecelebrate a double

Bob and Win Booth, from Cherry Tree Drive, not only enjoyed their very special day with a family lunch, but three days later they were out again, this time celebrating Mrs Booth's 85th birthday.

Surrounded by nearly 50 cards in recognition of both big occasions, including one from the Queen to mark the couple's 60 happy years of marriage, Mr and Mrs Booth who have one son, Peter and '˜a wonderful daughter-in-law, Heather', looked back over their busy life this week. Mrs Booth was born into a naval family in Portsmouth whose grandfather, father and sister all served in the Royal Navy. Continuing with the family tradition, Mrs Booth joined the WRNS at HMS Collingwood in 1941, which was where she met her husband Bob.

The couple married on 20 September, 1947, in Sheffield, following Mr Booth's outstanding war service, attached first to HMS Rayleigh and later HMS Glasgow where he was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal.

Following the war, Mr Booth (84), a draughtsman, re-joined his company as a building manager, putting his skills to use, building the couple's first home '“ a bungalow near Sheffield.

Crippled with arthritis, Mrs Booth was advised to move south and the couple took on the running of The Hare and Hounds at Stoughton and later The Barleycorn at Nutbourne, both near Chichester. In all, they spent 17 years in the trade. Said Mrs Booth: 'We enjoyed every minute of it.'

Ten years ago, Mr and Mrs Booth were one of the lucky couples invited to share in the golden wedding anniversary celebrations of the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh and attended the special Buckingham Palace garden party held in their honour.

The celebrations this time round included a family lunch on Thursday and a surprise birthday lunch later in the week, as well as meeting up with Mrs Booth's bridesmaid, a friend from her days in the WRNS and her pageboy, a cousin who was then just five years old, and is now 65.

Health problems have forced the couple to take things a little easier these days, but as they said this week: 'We've had wonderful lives and can still sit down and look at photographs and look back on all our memories.'

Their recipe for a long and happy marriage is simple: 'We worked together for so many years, we have always got on well '“ life's too short,' said Mrs Booth. Mr Booth agreed: 'We don't argue and have never fallen out.'