MALVERN couple Edith and Bob Amphlett will be celebrating their diamond wedding anniversary on Thursday (June 17).

They celebrated the achievement on Saturday (June 12) with a lunch for family and friends at the Green Dragon, in Guarlford.

The couple, who both grew up in Malvern and live in Watkins Way, first met at a party when Mrs Amphlett was 13.

It was four years until they met again in 1948, when Mr Amphlett had just been demobbed from the army, having served in Egypt, Greece and Palestine with the 17th/21st Lancers.

Mrs Amphlett recognised her future husband on a bus and said hello, and although Mr Amphlett at first struggled to place her, they got talking and went to the pictures that evening.

On June 17, 1950 they were married at Christ Church, in Avenue Road.

Mr Amphlett was a motor mechanic for a couple of years before spending the best part of four decades with the Post Office’s telephone division. Mrs Amphlett made transformers on the engineering section of what was then RRE.

The couple have two daughters, Ruth and Susan, four grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.

When quizzed on the secret to 60 years of happy marriage, Mrs Amphlett recalls what their vicar told them on their wedding day.

“He told us to remember the two bears - bear and forbear - and that has served us well,” she said.