A SALISBURY couple celebrating their platinum anniversary say it is down to “a shared faith, a happy family and always supporting each other”.

Douglas and Betty Parish celebrated their 70th wedding anniversary last Wednesday (August 9).

The couple met in Plymouth in 1938 at Mutley Baptist Church.

Betty, from Dunfermline, was 18 at the time, and Douglas from Portsmouth, was 13.

He thought Betty was “rather nice”, but she was engaged.

Betty worked in a reserved occupation at a garage, and carried out Red Cross post duty during the Blitz in Plymouth.

After finishing school, Douglas joined the Royal Navy and worked as a midshipman on HMS Mauritius during the D-day landings. He was awarded the Legion D’Honneur medal two years ago.

Betty’s fiancee had been killed during the war and so in 1945, after the pair had spent time together as Sunday school teachers and in the church choir, they went on their first date to a performance of the Moonlight Sonata.

They were married on August 9, 1947, at Mutley Baptist Church. Douglas had returned from sea eight weeks before, bringing silk for Betty’s wedding dress and the bridesmaids’ dresses from Malta.

After 25 years in the Navy Douglas left and the couple moved to Salisbury with their four children.

Douglas became an air engineering lecturer at Middle Wallop for 17 years, and was a lay pastor at Porton Baptist Church for 22 years, where Betty played the organ and ran the ladies fellowship group.

They are both still active members at Porton Baptist and had a party arranged by the church members on their anniversary day.

A family party took place on Saturday with their four children, 13 grandchildren and 16 great grandchildren, as well as other family members including Douglas’s brother and sister who were their page boy and bridesmaid.

Douglas and Betty put their long marriage down to a shared faith, a happy family and always supporting each other. They are thankful to God for a loving family.