Couple celebrate tying the knot 60 years ago

gwarren@thekmgroup.co.uk THEY may have got married on Valentine’s Day 60 years ago, but Raymond Fox admits his proposal to Doris was not the most romantic of occasions.

He said: “We’d been going out for a while and I think I said something like ‘I guess we’d better get tied up’.”

But the couple, who are celebrating their diamond wedding today (Thursday), say a loving and close family is the key to their happiness.

Speaking from their home in Devon Road, Canterbury, Doris, 80, said: “Of course, we have our arguments but we soon get over them.

“Mind you, I threw a cup of tea at him once and he ducked and it went all up the wall I had only just papered, so I wasn’t very happy about that.”

Raymond, 82, and Doris both grew up in Hampshire Road in Canterbury.

He said: “I used to see her on her doorstep and say hello and then one day on my way home from the TA I asked her out. We went for a drink at the Mill House, only to bump into my mum and dad there, which was a bit embarrassing on our first date.”

The couple were married at St Paul’s church and spent their honeymoon in Bexhill.

“I remember coming back with just five shillings in my pocket and that was all the money we had,” he said.

Life-long Everton fan Raymond had a variety of jobs, including at a concrete works at Chartham and later as a porter at the Canterbury Hotel.

In his younger days, he played football for Canterbury City A and coached youngsters at the Spring Lane Community Centre.

Doris was a bus conductor for East Kent buses for many years and together they have two daughters and a son.