A WEST Devon couple who are both in their nineties will this weekend notch up a remarkable 70 years of marriage. Herbert and Rene Sampson were married by her brother in Okehampton on October 8, 1935. The couple now live at Springfields Residential Home at Bridestowe. Both grew up locally, Herbert in North Tawton and Rene (maiden name Hawkins), was a farmer?s daughter from Sampford Courtenay. Although they have spent much of their life together in North Tawton, the couple have also lived in exotic locations like Ghana and Borneo. Herbert, who will be 99 this month, still goes for a walk every day, helping him to stay in good health. He was born in Putney, South West London, in 1906, but his parents decided to leave the capital and settled in North Tawton when he was still a boy. Initially, Herbert went to an all boys? school in Exeter, but his education was disrupted by the first world war ? Herbert said his journey home from Exeter train station was often held up because available trains had to be used to take troops on the start of their journey to the front line. The long distance Herbert was travelling to attend school led the education authority to write to his father suggesting he should transfer to either Crediton or Okehampton. It was at school in Okehampton that Herbert first met Rene, who is just a few months older. The couple tied the knot in 1935 in the Methodist Church in Okehampton, in East Street, which has since been demolished. Officiating was Rene?s brother the Rev Clifford Hawkins. The couple moved to London, where Herbert worked in the building trade. ?When Mr Chamberlain went to Germany and came back with a white piece of paper, the bottom fell out of everything. You could not go on building houses, so we went back to Devon,? said Herbert. Relatives of Rene?s were retiring and so the young couple took on their agricultural ironmonger?s business, Mannings, in the square at North Tawton. Rene said: ?It was hard work but we liked it. Most of the customers were all farming families. They used to say I could sell a refrigerator to an eskimo!? With the outbreak of the war, Herbert, already in his thirties, applied for a commission in the Royal Engineers and because of his experience he became a Second Lieutenant. Following his training, Herbert was sent to India, where he spent four years working on various construction projects. He travelled all over India, including Cherrapunji, reported to be the wettest place on earth. ?An inch of rain would fall every hour, and it would go on all day and all night without stopping. One time, we had as much as 27 inches fall in 24 hours ? even wetter than Okehampton.? Herbert said with few clear orders to follow he spent around two years wandering around Assan on his own, doing small jobs tidying up in the aftermath of conflict. ?It was very lonely,? he said. He also recalled that it was difficult to find food and he would sometimes go a whole 24 hours without eating anything. During this time he often thought of his wife, Rene looking after the business back in North Tawton. After the war, there was much restoration work to be done back in Britain and for a while Herbert worked for Harris and Sons of Plymouth, rebuilding parts of the city destroyed by air raids. The couple then embarked on the most adventurous stage of their life, after Herbert secured a job in West Africa. They went to live in Ghana, then known as the Gold Coast. They spent about 12 years there and another five or six in Borneo. In Borneo he built an eleven storey hospital with 62 beds including operating theatres. Herbert learned languages while he travelled around the world. ?In India, one of the languages was Urdu, which I had to learn. In Borneo, there were about 12 different languages, besides all the different dialects too. I was instructed to learn Malay, but I found it too difficult,? he said. The couple returned to Britain in the 1960s, coming back to the place they knew best, living in a cottage in North Tawton. There they lived next door to poet Ted Hughes at Court Green. Rene described Mr Hughes as a ?lovely man? . Although nearing retirement age, Herbert took up a post with the old Okehampton Rural District Council as a building surveyor in the planning office until local government re-organisation in 1974 led to the creation of West Devon Borough Council and the recruitment of new staff. In later years, Herbert still did some work drawing up plans for builders and during his retirement, he collected some of the memories from his eventful life into a book. When asked what was the secret of their long marriage, Rene put it down to ?tolerance? and said they were happy to have achieved such a tremendous milestone. The couple do not have any children, but they are regularly visited by their cousin John and his wife Dorothy who live in Bodmin.
