AN OKEHAMPTON couple this week celebrate 70 years of marriage and are still going strong — and in no small part it's thanks to the man who gave up the throne of England to marry the woman he loved.
John (Jack) and Marion Hellier, both 95, who live in Castle Road, Okehampton, celebrated their platinum wedding anniversary yesterday (Wednesday). But it was none other than the Prince of Wales himself who inadvertently brought them together.
In 1936, John, was working as a journalist in Okehampton on the Exeter-based Express and Echo.
He had started at the age of 15 in 1927 and worked for the Express and Echo, the Western Times and the Western Morning News.
In 1936 John was told to cover a visit to Tavistock by the Prince of Wales, who very soon became Edward VIII, before abdicating his throne in order to marry American divorcee Mrs Wallis Simpson.
After writing up his story in the pub he went into Tavistock post office, where behind the counter was Marion.
John said: 'If it was not for a member of the Royal family I would never have met Marion, never known of her existence.
'I looked at her and she looked at me and something must have clicked. She took my telegram and I thought, "She's rather nice".'
He must have made an impression, too, because Marion confessed when she first saw John that 'he was all right'.
Two years later and John was working in Okehampton. He went into the post office and there was Marion again.
Soon they were inseparable and in 1938 John took her on holiday to Baseford, near Nottingham.
'We married at Baseford Register Office in secret and it was the best 7s 6d I ever spent!' said John.
The couple later had a 'second' ceremony at Okehampton Parish Church on September 18, 1939 — just a few weeks after the start of the second world war.
During the war John served with the Royal Artillery in France, Norway and India, ending with the rank of sergeant.
In 1946 he returned to Okehampton, where he worked again as a journalist at the Express and Echo until he retired in 1978.
The couple have three children — Paul, aged 67, who lives in Exeter, Caroline, 60, who lives in Scotland, and Louise, 53, who also lives in Castle Road. They have seven grandchildren.
The platinum pair celebrated with a family lunch at the Bearslake Inn in Sourton — it is also John's 95th birthday today (Thursday).
'Our marriage has been tight and indissoluble, she has been wonderful, I love her to bits,' said John.
But it was Marion who had the last word: 'If I knew he felt like that, I would have asked for a pay rise!'