Lifelong Ealing residents Roy and Beryl Bartlett celebrated their 60th Diamond wedding anniversary on December 27 and received a congratulatory card from the Queen.
The couple from Drayton Grove, West Ealing, met when Beryl joined the youth club set up by Roy (then 15) in 1945, which progressed to the highly respected Viking Sports FC famed for its ground breaking overseas tours including the Soviet Union in 1965 and involvement in the Russian led invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968.
As a short term wartime evacuee Roy was subsequently injured by a bomb blast in South Ealing during the 1940 'Blitz' but recovered sufficiently to serve almost three years with the RAF, all chronicled in his book 'A Little Boy's War' and featured in several TV programmes. He was honoured in 2001 by placement on the New Years Day 'London Roll of Honour' for services to the community of Ealing.
Starting work at the age of 14 at the A.E.C Southall factory Roy became a manager in the fork lift truck industry before reverting to a role working with children in care, a vocation that Beryl had undertaken for many years to retirement.
Both now disabled, they are a familiar sight around West Ealing on their mobility scooters terrorising the locals.The couple have one son Gordon well known in his own right as manager of non-league football club Wealdstone for the past 20 years. They have two grandchildren Amanda and Craig.
Roy and Beryl say that they have led an interesting, rewarding and at times, exciting life together.
"In the aftermath of war things were austere, we had an outside loo, no central heating and our kitchen table was an upturned packing case. We bought a table when we could afford it on our meagre wages. We were born of a generation that if something didn't work, we fixed it, not threw it away. That same philosophy applies to marriage."
