A COUPLE who met in the RAF during the Second World War celebrated their 65th wedding anniversary.

Derrick and Margaret Ellis went back to where they married in 1955 at the Malmesbury Abbey at Gloucester Street.

They had a small gathering of friends and family but unfortunately their only daughter Sara couldn’t make it.

Margaret, 86, of Trajan Road, told the Adver: “We got to the church and there was a communion service going on and after it finished the vicar said that there was a couple celebrating their 65th wedding anniversary.

“Everyone turned round to look at who it was, they ended up coming up to us and congratulating us and shaking our hands, it was lovely.”

After the service the couple went to The Old Bell Hotel at Abbey Row for lunch.

She decided to join the air force at 17 just as Derrick was coming to the end of his six year service there where they both were clerical workers.

She said: “I decided I wanted to travel and see the world but I had no money. So I thought about where I could go that would feed me and clothe me while I can travel at the same time.

“I’d met him briefly then, but I met him again the following year when I was set up in a permanent camp in Medmenham. And he’d come there to work as a civilian and he was there for about a year.

“The first time I ever saw him he didn’t even notice me because I was very new, everybody’s shouting at you and I wasn't used to that and I’m just cowering in the corner.

"Then this vision of loveliness comes through the door and he was just being cheeky to the flight sergeant and I was terrified of him and he was showing off.

“We weren’t an item then but suddenly a year later I went out to High Wycombe and he’s just there waiting at a bus stop.”

Derrick, 90, knew he wanted to go on a date with her when he saw her that day.

He told the Adver: “I was stood at my bus stop and she was waiting across the road at the other stop.

"I still remember we were just by the cinema that used to be there with all the coloured lights shining on her. And it was raining and it was dripping off her hair and I thought she looked rather nice.”

That’s when he decided to ask Margaret out on a date.

They went to the pictures to watch the 1953 drama Wages of Fear.

But a year later Derrick proposed and she said no, it wasn’t until the third time he asked that she finally said yes.

Derrick said: “The third time I said I wasn’t going to ask again and so I proposed and she said yes.”

Margaret was unsure about marriage because she finally had a taste of freedom.

But after 65 years they’re still very happy.

Margaret told the Adver: “If I had some words of advice, to be married 65 years you’ve got to have a sense of humour.”

The couple also said that compromise is the key to a good long marriage.