WEST?Devon couple Thomas and Phyllis Smith will be celebrating their diamond wedding anniversary today (Thursday) with a big family reunion.

The couple met in 1949 at Newquay when Chagford hairdresser Phyllis was on holiday and Thomas, a private telephone engineer, was sent from London to work on a job at Newquay council offices.

'I came down for three weeks but ended up staying 18 months,' said Mr Smith.

After a courtship of almost three years, the couple married at St Michael's Church in Chagford on March 29, 1952 and then lived in London, moving down to Tavistock in 1975 when Thomas took up a job at the GEC Plymouth depot.

The couple now live in Tavistock.

They have two sons and four grand-daughters and will be meeting up with many family members at a reunion in London to celebrate 60 happy years together.

Thomas, 86, who is London born and bred, said he now lived a quiet life, having done everything he wanted to do.

'I served in the Air Raid Service during the bombing in London and joined the RAF in 1942. I was sent to the Far East and ended up in Burma.

'Then I came out of the RAF and the rest, as they say, is history.'