Peggy and George celebrate 65 years together

Peggy Lightbown found George Milne “arrogant”, while he felt she was “childish”.

But despite the rocky start, the Branksome couple will celebrate their 65th wedding anniversary tomorrow with a dinner of fish and chips in Chez Fred.

Peggy, now 88, met her future husband when he returned from serving with the Coldstream Guards during the war to take up his job with Sainsbury’s again.

The grandmother-of-seven, who was working in the shop in Westbourne herself, said: “Some of the boys who had worked for Sainsbury’s all of their lives, just like George, started coming back from the Army and getting back to their jobs.

“He came back all full of himself. I thought, ‘He fancies himself’.”

However, love eventually bloomed when the couple went to visit the pictures together.

“My boyfriend at the time was working on night duty, and George was by himself, and the long and short of it is that I went to the pictures with him,” said Peggy.

“I found that he wasn’t as bad as I thought he was, and I saw something in him that I hadn’t seen before. After going with him for a few months, love blossomed.”

George’s proposal to Peggy was typically relaxed.

Peggy said: “He bought a suite of furniture and he had nowhere to put it, as he was living above the shop at the time.

“I was living in rooms, and there was nowhere to store this furniture, so he said to me, ‘You had better marry me then.’”

The couple were married in Christ Church in Almhurst Road, Westbourne, in 1948.

George, 92, began working for Sainsbury’s aged just 14, and retired from the store when he was 60.

He said the key to a happy and successful marriage is lots of kissing and cuddling.

“We have had our ups and downs, just like anyone,” he said.

“We have had to work had all of our lives for our marriage, but we have always been so happy together.”

Peggy said: “No one is perfect, but you have to learn to ride the bumps.

“Our three children all have good marriages too. It’s love that makes the world go around.”