There have been diamond smiles for two Dumfriesshire couples who recently celebrated 60 years of happily married life.
John and Betty Campbell from Kellwood Avenue in Dumfries celebrated their diamond wedding anniversary with a surprise meal with close family at the Swan Hotel in Dumfries.
It was where they used to treat their four sons – John (who sadly died at the age of 38 in 2001), Michael, Alan and Paul – to a Sunday lunch when they were boys and a great day was had by all.
John, aged 83, hails from Lochmaben and 79-year-old Betty is from Dumfries – the youngest of 12.
The couple, who also have eight grandchildren and five great grandchildren, were married on April 4, 1962, and met working at J & D McGeorge Limited, knitwear manufacturers, who had a mill on the town’s St Michael Street until the early 1990s.
John spent most of his working life with the company, starting as an apprentice knitwear mechanic and became factory manager.
He moved into the knitwear industry in the Borders when J and D McGeorge closed in Dumfries.
Betty became a housewife raising her boys before she started a career with the NHS working at Nithbank Hospital then onto DGRI on Bankend Road when it was opened by the Queen.
She retired as a nursing auxiliary.
Betty said there was no recipe for success they could think of for 60 years of wedded bliss apart from they fact they “have just always been happy”.
The Dumfriesshire Lord Lieutenant Fiona Armstrong delivered a message of congratulations from The Queen to the second happy couple, Tony and Jackie Freeman, at their Tynron home.
Born in London, 82-year-old Tony and Jackie, aged 79, of Deal in Kent, were married on March 22, 1962.
They met at a dance when Jackie was a trainee nurse in Cheyne Hospital, West Wickham, and Tony was serving in the “Reserve Air Force” – technically known as the Royal Auxiliary Air Force and of which he is currently writing a book about as he gave 21 years service.
For his working life Tony was in sales office management while Jackie retired as a civil servant for the Atomic Research Authority.
As a small child she came to live, with her mother and sister, in Tynron with her godmother Mab Bowell, who was known as “Aunty Mab”.
When her mum tragically died, she and her sister returned to Kent to live with grandparents. However, 22 years ago, she returned with her husband to make Tynron her home again.
The couple have a son and a daughter, plus two grand-daughters.
Tony said their recipe for a happy marriage has been to “stay together through thick and thin”.
