A couple who met in an Acton youth club in 1953 have just celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary.

Mavis and Bert Allen met while doing ballroom dancing, where after a short time Mr Allen said: “I’m going to marry you one day just so you know.”

At the time Mr Allen lived in Du Cane Road in Acton while Mrs Allen lived in Wendel Road, Chiswick.

After they got married on October 9, 1954, they featured in the former ‘Acton Gazette and West London’ as they were the first couple to tie the knot in Askew Road Methodist Church after it was damaged in the war.

Mr Allen owned four branches of Allen’s Butchers around London before selling up to his brother and moving out of the borough to Ascot with his wife.

The Allens, who are both 81, have three children: Jacqui, 53, Debbie, 50, and Greg, 46, nine grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren. 

Granddaughter Maddi Butler, 21, said: “Through scares of cancer, Parkinson’s, dementia and Alzheimer’s they are still just as in love with each other as they were when they first met. If you ever think true love doesn’t exist just look at the smile on their faces when they are with each other, it’s never changed since the day they were married.”