THIS York couple are celebrating 60 years of happy marriage, after they met at an RAF dance in 1950.

Julia and William Meldrum will welcome their family, including 12 grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren, to their Fulford home tonight to celebrate their diamond wedding.

Mr Meldrum, 82, said: “I was posted to RAF Acaster Malbis from RAF Butterworth, north Malaya, in 1950.

“On my first night out to the Albany Dance Hall, I met Julia, who eventually became my wife.

“We decided to get married on June 16, 1951.

“My brother was in married quarters at RAF Catterick and he put us up for our honeymoon,” he said.

However Julia, 78, admitted that the wedding, at York Register Office, almost failed to go ahead, thanks to her forgetful father.

“I was 25 minutes late for the wedding because my dad forgot to order a wedding car,” she said.

“Eventually we got a taxi but I thought ‘that’s me not married’.”