SPARKLING Bromsgrove couple celebrated their diamond wedding anniversary with a special card from HM The Queen.
The magnificent milestone is fitting for popular pair Edward and Janet Cross as the way they got together also had a royal angle to it – they met on a blind date the night before Trooping the Colour in 1954.
Edward was living in London at the time and had joined the Coldstream Guards as a drummer boy, playing the flute. He was based at Aldershot, before moving to Windsor Victoria Barracks.
Janet lived in the New Kent Road, Elephant and Castle, and worked in an office as a telophonist and typist.
The pair married six months later in a full military wedding in Woolwich, South East London.
Over the years, Edward served in many countries, including the Middle East, the Far East and in Europe.
The pair had two sons – Gary in 1957 and Paul in 1961 and they now have seven grandchildren and seven great grandchildren, along with another one on the way.
Edward left the army in 1972 and the pair moved to Catshill where they still live now.
The couple said the secret to a long and happy marriage was ‘give and take on both parts and being able to laugh at each other’.
