12:04pm Thursday 18th March 2010
AN 84-YEAR-OLD man claims his 60 years of marriage is down to “doing what I’m told”.
Frederick Dolding and wife June, 78, will celebrate their anniversary today with a party at their home in Woolacombe Road, Blackheath, where they have lived for 47 years.
Mr Dolding, a former Royal Navy Chief Petty Officer, joked he “must have been drunk” when he first met his teenage bride, then aged just 16, at a 1947 Boxing Day party in Grove Park.
The couple had their first date at the Odeon cinema in Well Hall Road, Eltham, and Mr Dolding built his future wife a bicycle so they could take rides together.
He eventually proposed on the top deck of a number 21 bus and the pair married on March 18 1950 at St Andrew’s Church in Mottingham.
Mrs Dolding said: “We’ve never had a crossed word. It sounds silly but we’ve always been best mates.”
The couple’s children, three grandchildren and two great-grandchildren will all make an appearance at the party.
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