A COUPLE who have celebrated their 75th wedding anniversary say they “don’t know where the time has gone”.

Ron, 96, and Margaret Clavell, 93,who now live in Wilton, celebrated the milestone today (Tuesday, January 15) and received a special card from the Queen.

They enjoyed a meal with their family over the weekend.

On celebrating their 75th wedding anniversary, Ron said: “It is great really. It’s unbelievable. So many years and we have stuck together.

“I don’t know where the time has gone.”

The couple met through friends. Ron said: “I asked her if she would like to go to the pictures and that’s how it all started.”

Ron was later called up for military service and joined the army. He was serving in the 5th Battalion Wiltshire Regiment when the couple got married.

The pair wed at St Mary and St Nicholas Church in Wilton in 1944. For the ceremony, Ron says her borrowed a fellow soldier's navy blue dress suit and Margaret bought her wedding dress for £5 from somebody she knew and borrowed a veil for the ceremony.

And their parents and friends clubbed together to get ingredients for the cake because of rationing.

After the wedding Ron returned to his military service and was sent to Normandy a few days after D Day.

He was flown back to the UK after contracting rheumatic fever and was nursed back to health in hospital, returning to service.

He was eventually discharged from the army in 1945.

Ron then returned to work in the building trade. Prior to his military call-up he was an apprentice bricklayer. He later set up his own building company.

And Margaret worked as a cashier and book maker until their son Tony was born. She later returned to office work.

On the secret of a long marriage, the couple said: “You have got to be faithful to each other and get on, and do things together.”

The pair attend the Stroke Club and Thursday Club, which is held in Wilton Community Centre.

Before moving to Wilton they lived in Salisbury and Alderbury. They have two grandchildren and three great grandchildren.