Still wed 60 years on, couple who f led for love
And defied their families to live happily ever after
AS teenage sweethearts they caused a national scandal after fleeing to Scotland to elope.
Janet Harris was just 17 when she defied her parents and travelled 275 miles to marry the man she loved, 20year-old David Sant.
The case made national headlines after her father followed the pair to stop the wedding, spending three weeks in and around Gretna Green trying to find them.
Unbeknown to him, they were in hiding 24 miles away in Dumfries and the wedding – with Janet pregnant – went ahead.
But despite the dramatic beginnings of their marriage in 1955, the couple have stayed the course and have just celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary.
Great-grandfather Mr Sant, 81, said yesterday: ‘I met Janet at the dress shop where she used to work. I walked past and smiled at her and she smiled back, so I went back later to chat to her.
‘We fell in love instantly and had a passionate relationship. But in those days you didn’t have sex before marriage and we would have been despised if we’d stayed in Hereford.
‘You were ostracised if you had a baby out of wedlock. When she told me she was pregnant I was terrified. We both decided that we had to leave as soon as we could.’
The couple had been together for only a year when they fled their home city. At that time, couples could marry in Scotland without parental consent from the age of 16, whereas they had to be 21 in England. Mr Sant said: ‘I saved up about £60 over six weeks, which was like £2,000 in those days.
‘I sold my shoes, bicycle and every possession I had to save up for our escape.’
The possessions he s ol d included a pair of shoes given to him by the Duke of Gloucester’s valet, for which he got £3 – the equivalent of £ 74 i n today’s money.
He explained: ‘ A year before we got married, I was working as an apprentice electrician at Badminton House in Gloucestershire for the Duke and Duchess of Beaufort.
‘I was helping to rewire the house when I got talking to a valet who was there who said he worked for t he Duke of Gloucester.
‘He asked if I wanted a lovely pair of brogues which the Duke had given to him but said they didn’t fit him.
‘I said “Yes, please” and took them home. I had no idea of their real value until I went to sell them a year later.’
When the pair disappeared in December 1955, several newspaper reporters were dispatched to Gretna to find them.
The press dubbed f ormer beauty queen Mrs Sant a ‘reallife Cinderella’ who had run off with her Prince Charming. Wisely, they avoided Gretna Green.
‘We knew that would be the first place Janet’s father would look,’ said Mr Sant.
‘He would have killed her, and my mother disapproved of us being together.’
They returned to Hereford as a married couple. ‘We were happy together from the start and never looked back,’ said Mr Sant. ‘I never wanted anyone else.’
‘I sold all I had to save for our escape’