13810/02RETIRED painter and decorator Roy Lawrence and his wife, Harmony, who were in the same class at the former Marlborough Grammar School, will celebrate 50 years of marriage on Saturday.

The couple, who have spent all of their married life in Pewsey, will be celebrating their golden wedding with a family gathering attended by their two sons and two daughters and eight grand children.

Mr Lawrence, 73, was born in Milton Lilbourne and did a term at the village school before his family moved into Pewsey where he went to the infants and junior school before going to Marlborough Grammar.

He followed in the footsteps of his grandfather and father by becoming a painter-decorator. He did two years National Service with the 2nd Royal Horse Artillery as a signaller.

Mrs Lawrence was born in Marlborough and was one of trio of children of the Swatton family known as the "the three Hs" Harmony, Hugh and Hope. Her brother and sister still live in Marlborough.

She went to St Mary's School in Marlborough before going to the grammar school where she and her husband were in the same class.

Mrs Lawrence, 71, was just 12 when her father who was serving in the RAF, died when a plane he was travelling in crashed in the Canadian Rockies.

She worked in Boots in Marlborough for some years and also as a dental nurse in the practice of Mr Bryn Walters. She was one of the most ardent campaigners for a swimming pool in Pewsey and was a volunteer helper at the pool.

The couple have always been carnival stalwarts and for many years entered floats with friends.

Nowadays Mr Lawrence likes to relax with his new-found hobby of bowling while his wife tends their immaculate garden at their home in Broadfields, where they have lived since it was built in 1963.