Meet Britain’s oldest newlyweds
Brief Encounter star’s happy ending... at 92
A COUPLE with a combined age of 183 have tied the knot to become Britain’s oldest newlyweds.
Rob Cave, 91, and 92-yearold Margaret James, who appeared in the film Brief Encounter, were married in front of 150 friends and family at the weekend.
The couple have been friends for 30 years but romance bloomed after their spouses died within months of each other in 2015.
Former actress Margaret played the station waitress Beryl Walters in the 1945 romance.
She and her late husband Raymond moved to Wimborne, Dorset – where Rob and his wife Mavis lived – in 1992.
Margaret said: “When Mavis suddenly died the first thing I did was rush around to see Rob and say how very sorry I was. Then he did the same for me when my husband passed away.”
Rob added: “We just got together and consoled each other to begin with.
“Then about two years ago we realised we had stopped grieving for our passed spouses. It wasn’t really courting but we were seeing each other almost every day.
“We wanted do it properly. I didn’t really propose. We were chatting and I said, ‘Why don’t we get married’ and Margaret was all for it.”
And 66 years after they both wed first time round, the couple walked down the aisle again at Wimborne Minster, celebrating with a “wonderful afternoon tea”.
Confident of a happier ending than in the film, she said: “I am over the Moon. We had a wonderful wedding day. We will still be here for a long time yet, we are both very happy and very well.”
Rob, whose daughter Julia Palmer was maid of honour, added: “It is not a marriage out of convenience, it is a marriage out of romance.
“I was feeling my age until Margaret and I got together but now I feel 20 years younger.”
Joan Grant and Ted Wright – combined age 171 – were thought to have been Britain’s oldest newlyweds after they wed earlier this year.