Ken and Alma Holt of Winchester Avenue, Morecambe, first set eyes on one another at the Bury Palais in 1946 and two years later married at the register office, with Alma's best friend being a bridesmaid, and Ken's friend from the RAF, being best man.

Eighty-eight-year-old Ken said of the night they met: "She was stood there and she was a good dancer."

He said: "I came to Morecambe in 1940 to train in the RAF doing square bashing on the stone jetty. I was billeted on West End Road and Westgate fields.

"I then left Morecambe and spent four and a half years in the Middle East. I joined the railway in 1960 and we lived in Bletchley between 1965 and 1970.

"I was working on the railway line from Wigan to Hest Bank and had to go to Wigan every day to pick up trains. I asked if I could live in Morecambe."

In 1971 the couple came to Morecambe and Alma got a job at Lancaster Moor Hospital working in the offices as a clerical assistant. She also worked at the Royal Lancaster Infirmary for 12 months and went to the Queen Victoria Hospital outpatients department until she retired at the age of 56.

The pair enjoy eating out in the local area and Ken is a member of RAFA and Bare Village Club.

The couple have two daughters, Susan, 48, and Christine, 50, four granddaughters and one grandson. One of their daughters is married to an English diplomat and lives in Washington, USA.

They enjoy holidays in Spain and have lived in Madrid for three years, Turkey for three years, and Greece, where their daughter's husband was sent for his work as a diplomat.

The secret to a happy marriage, according to Alma, who is now 82, is 'give and take.'

The couple plan a get-together for friends to celebrate their anniversary and are having a dinner at Whitewalls restaurant in Hest Bank for family.