A BORDON couple are set to celebrate their diamond wedding anniversary.

Patrick, now 82, and Valerie Barton, 78, married at St Mary’s Church, Bentley, on June 1, 1957.

A former sergeant major in the Army, Mr Barton grew up in Alton and, as his wife came all the way from Bentley, joked he had to conquer the taboo of marrying a woman then considered “a foreigner”. The couple, who live at Whitehill Park, have five children, as well as grandchildren and great grandchildren.

Asked for the secret of a successful marriage, Mr Barton said people often remarked that he and his wife “never argue”. “We have a difference of opinion,” he said. “But we don’t argue.” And how is that possible?

“We don’t talk to each other,” he joked.

Mr Barton said he and his wife would celebrate with a surprise party, organised by their daughter, which they were not supposed to know about.