Pair celebrate at pub 70 years after wedding
A couple who got married by special licence after the bride made an emergency dash to see the bishop in a milk-van have celebrated their platinum wedding.
The young bride, Edith Armstrong of Lower Camden, Bath, married her fiance Brian Perkins, from South Stoke, on November 3, 1951. They were just 21.
The Queen sent the couple her best wishes: “I send you my warm congratulations.
May your celebrations be particularly happy and memorable,” she wrote.
The wedding reception was held at Brian’s family pub, the Packhorse in South Stoke, and on Sunday,
70 years later, the anniversary celebration was held there too.
It was supposed to be a Christmas wedding. They had met at a dance aged 17 at the Bath Pavilion.
The big day was set for December 22nd when King and country intervened in their plans.
Edith was secretary to department store magnate James Colmer of Colmer’s in Union Street and Brian ,who worked for Fullers Garages, had a deferred call-up for national service and was not expecting a sudden letter from the Royal Electrical and
Mechanical Engineers with a travel warrant.
After five weeks Brian knew he would get leave and sent a message from Paddington to Bath station to be delivered to Edith by taxi.
When they got the message from Brian, Edith and Brian’s sister Margaret set off together for the Bishop’s Palace in Wells in farmer Wilson’s milk van to request his Lordship’s permission for the marriage to be brought forward.
“BATH COUPLE WED BY SPECIAL LICENCE,” read the announcement in the Bath and Wilts Chronicle and Herald. “A wedding originally planned for December 22 took place at St James’, Southstoke, this afternoon, after only two days’ notice had been given to prepare everything”.
According to the column from November 1951, when our reporter visited Edith’s home less than two hours before the ceremony was to take place, alterations were still being made to her wedding gown.
“She also wore a veil (lent by a friend) and carried a shower bouquet of pink carnations and lily-of-the-valley,” wrote our 1951 reporter.
Before he flew out of RAF Lyneham, Brian was granted an additional 48-hour pass for a honeymoon.
In those precious hours Brian and Edith drove to Weymouth in a borrowed Ford 8 and then on to Portland in a howling gale. During his military service Brian and Edith neither saw nor spoke to each other and they relied solely on the exchange of many photographs and letters.
The Pack Horse Pub in South Stoke is very special to the couple. Brian was born there on August 29, 1930, in the “pink room” above what is now the bar.
When he was born, his grandparents, Fred and Emily Rose were the landlords, but by the time of the wedding it had passed to his Uncle Bob and his Aunt Doris who re-iced a birthday cake with rope-icing to make their wedding cake.
Brian’s memories of the Packhorse pub in the early 20th century can be read here: https://packhorsebath. co.uk/our-story/the-packhorseremembered.