A FARNHAM couple have celebrated 60 years since they tied the knot in Southern Rhodesia in 1959.

Gillian and Derek Hull marked their diamond wedding anniversary on April 11 with an afternoon tea with their daughters.

They were also given a card from the Queen, which the couple were excited to receive.

But the big celebration took place on April 14 when they invited around 18 of their nearest and dearest to their Farnham home for a buffet lunch.

The pair met when Gillian was aged 22 and Derek was 27, having been on a blind date in Bulawayo where Derek was living and working and Gillian grew up.

After around three weeks, Derek told Gillian that he was being trasferred to northern Rhodesia, but Gillian said he was not to go without her.

Derek told Gillian her “father wouldn’t be very impressed”, to which she replied: “If I’m your wife, which I intend to be, then he won’t have any say in the matter!”

Derek added: “So effectively having proposed to me, I said ‘yes’ and four months later we got married.”

Gillian said she is “still hanging on to him”, adding she “liked what I saw!”

They went on to have three children – Cheryl, Lesley and Bruce – and after moving to several places in South Africa, including Durban and Cape Town, they moved to the UK in May 1975.

They settled in Weybridge, before moving to Seven Oaks in 1983 and Farnham in 2002.

Gillian, now aged 82, was a “very good amateur artist” who used to also enjoy creating tapestries, but “sadly it was found she had macular degeneration several years ago” and is now registered with a severe sight impairment.

Her and Derek, 87, are now grandparents to six grandchildren, ranging in age from 21 to 30, and three great-grandchildren.

Derek said: “When Gillian said to me 60 years ago ‘I’m going to marry you’, I never thought we’d finish up with such a brood of offspring!”

He added that the secret to such a long marriage is mutual respect, tolerance and love for each other – “almost in that order one might say” – while Gillian said she “wouldn’t be without him”, adding they are “getting old and grey together”.