A GIRL who rejected the invitation of a date with a local boy, has just celebrated 60 years of marriage to him.

Eric Cormack’s luck did not desert him.

After joining the RAF during the Second World War, he was back home in Sidcup on a weekend pass and on his way to the cinema in Eltham with a pal when he ran into his future wife Joyce, now 81, again.

She was also with a friend and they accepted a invitation to join the boys at the cinema.

And the rest, as they say, is history.

After the war, Mr Cormack, now aged 82, became an apprentice bookbinder and the couple remained engaged for three years because they could not afford to marry.

They eventually married at the Holy Redeemer Church in Blackfen, and bought their first home in Crofton Avenue.

Mr Cormack eventually went on to found the revolutionary Roundabout bus company in Orpington.

Six years after their wedding the couple celebrated the birth of the first of their two daughters.

The Cormacks, who now live in Balmoral Gardens, Bexley, also have four grandchildren and one great granddaughter.

They celebrated with a family lunch and a party for family and friends, including their two bridesmaids, the couple’s sisters, both called Audrey.