THEY were childhood sweethearts and last week Fred and Doris Pote from Gunnislake celebrated 70 years of marriage.

As happy today as the day they first met at primary school, the couple married at Calstock Parish Church on April 27, 1940, just before Mr Pote was called up to fight in world war two at the age of 19.

At the time he had already been working since the age of 14 at Kit Hill Quarry. He served five and a half years in the Army and went to North Africa, Sicily, Algeria, Belgium, Holland, Germany and France as well taking part in Operation Overlord at the Normandy landings on D-Day.

After the war Mr Pote returned to Kit Hill Quarry until it closed. He then moved to Merrivale Quarry in Princetown where after a few years he was promoted to manager.

It was during this time that he supervised the construction of the Falklands War Memorial that stands in Port Stanley. He retired at the age of 64.

The couple had three children and Mrs Pote also worked as a postmistress and school cook.

In latter years Mr Pote became a full-time carer for his wife and having started to use a computer for the first time at the age of 87, he is now a regular internet shopper, buying his groceries on-line.

The Potes have seven grandchildren, nine great grandchildren and one great-great grandchild with two more due this year.

Mrs Pote is the eldest of five generations of girls, Maureen, Wendy, Kayleigh and four-year-old Mia.

Daughter Evelyn flew home from Ethiopia to help organise a surprise party to celebrate her parents' platinum anniversary.

The couple said they had had the odd disagreement but would not change a day of their lives: 'We are as happy today as when we first met,' they said.