A WARTIME romance became the bedrock for a long-term marriage for Ken Brown and Irene Mack who are celebrating their platinum wedding anniversary today, Wednesday 10th August.

Ken was stationed at RAF Downham Market in Norfolk during the Second World War, responsible for servicing the aircraft of 635 Squadron a leading pathfinder squadron of Lancaster bombers.

Within walking distance of the town, he went to the cinema one evening and from his seat in the stalls, spotted a fair-haired girl in the circles, and was determined to find her again.

He spotted her at a local night out a few days later and asked her for a dance. Irene said that he asked what she was doing the next night: “I didn’t think much of him at first and tried to put him off and said that I was going to church with my mum and aunt.

“Sure enough when I went to church the next night, there he sat,” she added.

Romance blossomed into marriage in 1946.

Ken explained: “We got engaged before the end of the war, but once the war finished I was moving back to Manchester to my parents’ house, so we had to get married, simply because travelling to Downham Market from Manchester where my parents lived was too far to travel.”

“We had very little money” said Ken, “but nobody grumbled as everyone was in the same boat.”

Most of Ken’s life was spent in the tailoring trade while Irene brought up their two sons and kept the house.

Comptons made uniforms in large quantities for the Chelsea Pensioners, Yeoman of the Guard and all the livery uniforms at Buckingham Palace, and it was working there that Ken was awarded the MBE in 1978 for his services to export as chairman and managing director of what was then Europe’s leading uniform manufacturer.

As he was the holder of the Royal Warrant for the firm, visits took the couple to the Houses of Commons and Lords, the Guildhall, Windsor Castle and just before he retired, at the special invitation of the Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, he and Irene went to Downing Street where they were shown around Number 10; they found her “very welcoming”.

When he went before the Queen to receive his MBE, Her Royal Highness asked what he had done to deserve the award. Ken explained that it was for exports: “We do provide uniforms and one of those uniforms is standing behind you Ma’am.”

Retiring to Monmouth, the couple enjoyed their life together; Ken was president of the golf club for eight years and 25 years as president for the Wye Valley Art Society.

He maintains that the silver thrupenny bit that his grandmother gave him when he was a little boy and told him to keep it all his life, was a lucky coin. He has carried it in his wallet ever since.

The marriage was destined to last however as when Irene went back to her friend in that wartime dance hall she said, “I think that fella’s going to stick!”