Anne and Wally celebrating their 70th anniversary
ANNE and Wally Wykes are celebrating 70 years of marriage this month.
Daughter Susan Tyler told the Echo that couple met after the war: “My mother who is Dutch came to England in 1947 to work as a nanny.”
“My dad’s brother, William Leonard Wykes, was killed in the Second World War aged 20, flying in a bomber that was shot down and is buried in a village called De Lutte.
Susan said that after the war all families who had lost family members during the war were sponsored by the Government to go with expenses paid to the graves of their loved ones buried abroad and her grandmother (mother of Wally and William) visited De Lutte.
She said: “My grandmother very welcome and when she returned to England, she decided she wanted to do something for the village.
“She decided to arrange for a week in Streatham London for a football team and netball team from the village.
“My mother was by now working as an nursing auxiliary in a hospital near Streatham and had got to know my grandmother at the hospital and she asked her to come and be an interpreter for her with the people who were coming from De Lutte.
“My mother’s English had been taught to her by the British soldiers during the later stages of the war as the Allied troops liberated Holland.
“My mother came from a town called Nijmegen which was occupied by German forces during the war and was a key town in the final weeks of the war as the Allies attempted to cross the
Rhine river. Unfortunately, she was taught many choice phrases which did lead to some embarrassment in the early days until she became more proficient in English!”
Susan’s grandmother introduced Wally and Anne to each other and the couple were later married on March 11, 1950.
Susan added: “At this time there was still extensive bomb damage from the war and there was little housing available for a new family.
“My father’s occupation was a telephone engineer installing telephone exchanges and he was offered a job to go and live in Nairobi East Africa installing new telephone exchanges. They both set off and lived in East Africa for the next 30 years, spending time in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda.
“Some of their memories and experiences from this time include experiencing the Mau Mau terror in Kenya and living in a house next to Idi Amin while in Kampala Uganda.
“I was born on a leave back to England in 1955 and my brother was born in 1956.
“They returned to England in 1980 and Dad went back to work for his old Telephone Exchange in London until he retired.
“They came to Leicestershire in 1990 to be near me.
“My parents were both very good golfers playing off three and five respectively playing in later years at Rothley Park Golf Club. My mother being the lower handicap!”
The couple now live in Thurcaston, Leicestershire and have been celebrating the anniversary with family and friends.