Newbury couple celebrate 70 years of married bliss

The pair met at Stockcross dance in 1948

ON April 10, it will be 70 years to the day since Richard and Sylvia Pearce exchanged their wedding vows at the church of St Andrew in Boxford.

The couple married in 1950, just a month before Royal Marine Mr Pearce ventured to the Far East for two-and-a-half years during the Korean War.

They have been virtually inseparable ever since – Mr Pearce’s tours in the Marines aside – and have had four children, 17 grandchildren and 32 great-grandchildren.

They have lived in Wycombe, Cornwall and Compton, before moving to Kintbury – where they now live.

Mrs Pearce, 87, said the success and longevity of their marriage could be put down to love.

“We couldn’t have had a lovelier time if we tried,” she said.

“We’ve always got on together.

“When we got married we were only young and people said the marriage would never last.

“I think being away from each other brought us closer together.

“We were apart for such a long time and I think it makes you more loving towards each other and makes you want to be together.”

The pair met at a Stockcross dance in 1948 after Mrs Pearce, then living in Hoe Benham, had been cajoled to attend by Mr Pearce’s sister Nelly.

Mrs Pearce said: “My sister-in-law invited me to go to the dance and that’s when she said to me ‘Do you want to meet my brother? He’s in the Royal Marines’.

“I said, ‘No, no, no, don’t start doing that’,” but that’s how we met and we’ve been together ever since.

“If it wasn’t for her, I might not have met him.”

On the secret to their marriage, Mr Pearce, now 90, said: “Love and hope and all those things.

“We’re stuck in the house for 12 weeks so we’ll have a big party afterwards.”