A Mitcham couple celebrated their diamond wedding anniversary earlier this month with a special party at St Marks Hall for family and friends.

Retired priest George

Parsons and his wife Sylvia, from Russell Road, married on October 2, 1941, two years after their first meeting at an ice rink in Streatham.

Sylvia told the Guardian: My cousin wouldnt go out with her boyfriend unless he brought a friend (which was George) and she took me with her.

I dont know what

happened to hers but George and I stayed together, she joked.

The couple, now both in their 80s, have five children, 11 grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.