One of the UK’s longest married couples has celebrated their 80th wedding anniversary this week.
Eric and Nancy Kingston were married on 1st June, 1940. Mrs Kingston said: “We’re still holding hands and I had a kiss this morning in bed. We still love one another.”
They have lived in Blackford near Wedmore for much of their lives and have five children, 11 grandchildren, 28 great-grandchildren and 14 great-great-grandchildren.
Due to the Coronavirus pandemic, they were unable to receive visitors in their home, but relatives and friends instead joined them in their garden to help celebrate.
When they first met in 1938, Neville Chamberlain was the Prime Minister and King George VI was on the throne.
Nancy, who will be 100 in October, said she asked her brother to arrange their meeting in 1938.
“He went out of the farm [where Eric was working] and he told him I was waiting on [the] bridge. That was it, it went from there,” she told the BBC.
Their son Stephen Kingston, who lives with them, said his parents were “quite young in their outlook”.
“They keep up to date with all that is going on so they don’t seem as old as they are. The kind of people they are has always been a big influence on me and the decisions I’ve made in life.”
