Dance led to a diamond (From Stroud News and Journal)

Dance led to a diamond

A COUPLE who learnt to dance together and have been keeping in step ever since looked back fondly on 60 years of married life this week.

Stanley Cox, 87, first met wife Bernice, 82, at ballroom dancing classes in Stroud before the outbreak of the Second World War.

They were wed just four days after VE Day and have just celebrated their diamond wedding anniversary.

"They paired us up and it just grew from there," said Mrs Cox. "I was 16 at the time. I saw him and thought 'he looks nice'."

Mr Cox said: "We learnt to dance together."

And he joked: "I'm still learning." Amidst the wartime uncertainty the couple courted for the next six years before getting married in St Cyr's Church in Stonehouse on May 12, 1945.

The marriage came just after the final defeat of Nazi Germany on May 8 and the couple admit it was an auspicious time for their own celebration.

"It was a good setting to have our wedding in," said Mr Cox.

"Naturally it was a sad time for some people but most of us were just so happy it was over," added his wife.

For their honeymoon the newlyweds spent a few days in London, where they witnessed the Royal parade that followed VE Day.

They then went to Edinburgh and were again greeted with a Royal procession in the city.

"We began to think they were following us around," joked Mr Cox.

The couple settled into their new home in Stonehouse, where Stanley worked as a chief tester at Hoffman's engineering workshop for 49 years.

They have two children, David, 57, a Dean at the Royal Agricultural College in Cirencester and Geoffrey, 54, who runs his own IT business.

They still enjoy regular holidays to Scotland and Cornwall and are both convinced that their friendship is the key to their long-lasting marriage.

"We are such good friends," said Mrs Cox. "We both enjoy the same things and we get on so well."