WEYBOURNE residents Harry and Winifred Norris, who first met on a night out at the cinema back in 1942, celebrated their 70th wedding anniversary in style with friends and family at The Princess Royal in Farnham.

Harry and Winifred were married at the end of the Second World War in 1945. Harry served with the Royal Hampshire Regiment during the war in Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Sicily and Greece, and survived a torpedo attack by a German U-boat in the Mediterranean.

During the war, Winifred, 92, was a nurse based at Margate Hospital in Kent, which remained open even when Margate was evacuated. Harry, 95, was 24 when he met Winifred, who at the time was 22, after she told him off for talking. He said: “I was out with a pal, we went to watch Gold Rush at the cinema and there were these girls making noise in front of us, so we started having a go at them.

“Then we heard a voice from behind in the darkness saying ’do you mind being quiet, we have spent our hard-earned money to come and see a film’. and that was Winifred’s first words to me. She told me off. After leaving the cinema my pal said ‘ask her out’and I did, we exchanged addresses.”

Three months later Harry was back on the road, as he set off once again with the army, Winifred would write to him to stay in contact. Their mail system at the time was very good, even when they were based up high in the mountains, the mail would still be bought up with the food.

Harry said: “I felt sorry for some of the chaps who never got much mail. It important to hear from home – I still have two boxes of full of letters, I don’t want to get rid of them.”

Winifred had some near misses during the war. One night while Harry was away, she enjoyed an evening at the cinema with friends and just 15 minutes after everyone had vacated, the cinema had a direct hit by a bomb.

She said: “We’ve had a good life, but a hard life. We’ve done it our way and I don’t regret anything. A lot of years have passed since we got married and I have thoroughly enjoyed my life. You don’t realise it, time has gone by so fast and a lot has happened.

“We are very happy together, I don’t think we will change now. If you think about the narrow squeaks we’ve had, you know different times, just the way its gone.

“You just had to keep in contact which is why we wrote to each other. You looked forward to the letters, I know he did and I definitely did. It was the only method of communication, no emails, no phones. Nothing. It is a different life now.”

They ran the village shop in Weybourne for 14 years, closing before the opening of Sainsbury’s in Water Lane. Upon retirement they caravanned across Europe and visited the places where Harry had fought during the war.

They would like to thank George and Shirley Wodderson, Pat and Max Coombes, Arthur and Pat Norris, and other friends and neighbours for supporting them over the years.