War sweethearts' big 70th milestone

Lydia Alexander, 93, and her husband Thomas, 90, met at a party in Berlin towards the end of the war. Lydia was a member of the Auxiliary Territorial Service, while Thomas was a member of the famous Black Watch Regiment, infantry battalion of the Royal Regiment of Scotland.

They celebrated their platinum wedding anniversary this week.

Their daughter Joy Ferguson, 64, said: “They got engaged after just three months, which isn’t a very long time to have known someone, and here they are 70 years later!

“They are a fantastic couple. They like to bicker but they are absolutely in love.”

Lydia and Thomas came to Blackpool in the 1950s, where they ran their own bed-and-breakfast boarding house.

They still live independently on St Annes Road, Blackpool, where they are visited frequently by their two daughters, two grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.

Joy said: “My mum loved to go to her little bingo club and to go dancing – and my dad just liked my mum!

“They have always been very close family. It’s probably hard work, family and love that’s kept them going.

“Dad has had a heart bypass and my mum’s partially sighted, but they still do all their own work and jobs around the house. They are quite independent.

“They love their family and would do anything for them. I think how nice it is that their great-grandchildren have both of them there.”

She added that there was no big secret to her parents’ successful marriage.

She said: “It’s all down to getting along with each other and loving each other – and having a little bicker every now and then!”