GOLDEN couple June and Howard Jones have attributed their half century of marriage to patience and perseverance.

The couple, who live in Stafford Street, met at an anniversary victory dance at the scout hut in Dowling Street in August 1946, where Howard summoned the courage to ask his prospective wife to the cinema the following night June's 18th birthday.

"I had a feeling June was older than me, but I wasn't sure," said Howard.

"But I found out when I took her to the cinema that it was actually her 18th birthday that night."

Having joined the navy as an apprentice when he was 15, Howard, now 72, worked at the railway works as secretary of the GWR Carriages and Local Department Sick Fund Society, also known as the Yard Club.

June, now 73, went to school with Diana Dors and worked as a food office clerk at the Town Hall where the couple held their reception after their wedding in 1952.

"We're both from Swindon but I arrived here as something of a mistake," quipped Howard. "I was supposed to be born in March but my mother came here Christmas shopping and I entered the town.

"Our 50 years together are down to a mix of patience and perseverance."

The couple's three children treated their parents to a trip on the Orient Express last week but Howard insisted that anyone thinking of sending the couple gifts should instead donate to the Prospect Foundation.