FRED and Nancy Wade, of Green Park, Wootton Bassett, are celebrating their diamond wedding anniversary.

The couple, who grew up a few streets apart in London, first met at a dance in their teens.

"I liked the way he danced, and that was it!" said Mrs Wade.

Their wartime wedding was on December 20, 1941, at St Mark's, Myddleton Square. Nancy was 20, Fred 22.

"The church had a hole in the roof from bomb damage in an air raid some months earlier," said Nancy, who evaded rationing by buying fabric for her wedding dress from a trader in Petticoat Lane.

The dress is still in good condition, carefully folded in a box and it still fits.

Three bridesmaids wore pale blue satin, but there was no lavish reception just a small party at a friend's house.

"You couldn't get extra food to feed people," said Nancy.

Fred was at work on the morning of their wedding day, and it was back to routine for them both next day, with no chance of a honeymoon.

Nancy, who was granted a whole day off for the wedding, did clerical work for British Drug Houses. Fred was a service engineer with British Time Recorders.

They made their home in rented rooms, and were thrilled when their daughter Jacqueline was born in 1944. By then, Fred was in the Army, with REME, and was posted to Jamaica as an armourer in training with the Jamaican Infantry Volunteers, for possible service in the Far East. He did not see his wife and daughter again for almost three years.

On demob, Mr Wade resumed his civilian job for a year before joining Blick, which relocated to Wiltshire in 1975 and brought them to Wootton Bassett.

They both lead an active life, and still enjoy dancing.

And the sparsity of that wartime wedding reception was compensated for at a diamond wedding party for 90 guests at the Hilton Hotel.