THEY may have only courted for eight weeks in total before they married 60 years ago but Larry and Dinah Coley's love blossomed through a two-year correspondence.
Before and during the war Mr Coley, who served in the Royal Artillery and later the 51st Highland Division, wrote to the woman he had met briefly in Okehampton in 1938 and when he returned from Dunkirk he married her.
Sixty years on and two children, six grandchildren and 21 great grandchildren later the Hatherleigh couple are still as happy as ever, so what's the secret?
'It's all about give and take — if one of us had six pence we would share it and if you go into a marriage with that sort of attitude you will be all right,' said Mrs Coley.
'My mother also had a very good motto — never let the sun go down on a quarrel, always make up before you go to bed.'
Despite a short courtship Mrs Coley knew the young soldier was the one for her: 'I had made up my mind,' she said, ' Larry was the one I wanted to marry if he came back from the war— I carried a photo of him in my handbag all the time he was away.
'Of course you never knew what was going to happen in those days.'
The couple were married at Okehampton Registry Office on June 22, 1940 and had a blessing in the Baptist Chapel. Two days later Mr Coley went back to join his regiment.
The couple had two sons but because of the war Mr Coley never saw his youngest son until he was four and a half years old.
He was demobbed in 1945 and for the rest of his working life was employed by the Post Office both in Okehampton and Bath.
As a retirement present the couple went to Australia to see their eldest son and his family and they have returned four times since.
Many family members will be joining the Coleys when they celebrate their Diamond Wedding at Higher Cadham Farm today (Thursday.)