BY ELLIE PATTEN

A LYDIARD Millicent couple have marked 70 years of marriage on Tuesday.

Grace and Reg Bessant celebrated their platinum wedding anniversary, with Reg revealing that if he had his time over again he would still have chosen Grace to be his bride.

The couple, who have lived in Lydiard Millicent for 68 years, have been married since 1945 and even received a congratulatory card from the Queen.

They first met in Hastings where Grace worked as a cashier and bookkeeper, and where Reg was working as a lorry driver for the army.

“I’d never had a lady friend in my life until I went out with Grace,” said Reg.

Their first date was a trip to the cinema in Hastings. “We made five dates after that,” Reg recalled, “And never kept one”.

Despite cancelling five dates in a row, the pair eventually reunited for their second date, and were together for a month before Reg returned to Germany, unsure if he would be able to see Grace again.

For 18 months, Grace and Reg exchanged letters, and decided to marry when Reg returned to England, in a day that Reg described as a “disaster”.

“Grace’s car broke down on the way to the church, the organ broke down, the photographer forgot to come, and it rained like hell,” he said.

Even then, Reg was only able to spend one day with his new wife before a telegram requested he return to Germany. About a month later, Reg was called back to England to work with steam engines, and the newly married couple were brought back together.

But 70 years of marriage doesn’t pass without some rows, however small. “I think there was one day when I never spoke to him at all,” said Grace.

After the birth of their daughter, Sue, who the couple claim cried every night for two years, preventing them from sleeping, and who the doctor suggested was simply “born miserable”, there was a moment when Grace nearly left.

However, she didn’t walk far from the house before she turned around and came back. The couple insist that Sue, who now has two daughters and two granddaughters of her own “hasn’t been a bit of trouble since”.

“She’s an angel. She looks after everything,” said Reg.

Despite the uncertain start to their relationship, Reg and Grace have worked as a team for 70 years. “It’s a lot of give and take. They work well together,” their daughter Sue said of her parents’ relationship.

Reg added that when they decided to marry, he told Grace, “You look after the money, and I’ll look after the garden.”

Now he said: “She’s looked after the money for 70 years.

“We wouldn’t be without each other. I told her last night, if I had my time again, I would still be with Grace.

"I think I love her more now than I did in the beginning.”