7:30pm Wednesday 16th July 2008
By Lucy Tatchell
CHILDHOOD sweethearts who were separated during the Second World War have now celebrated 69 years of marriage.
Former Worcester News sports editor Jack Godfrey met his wife Betty at his father’s shop in Evesham.
She was 14 and had left school to help her mother care for her siblings after her father was killed during the First World War.
At the time Mr Godfrey was still a student at Prince Henry’s Grammar School, and after dating they married at St Lawrence Church in Evesham on July 15, 1939.
Mr Godfrey, a D-Day veteran, said the secret to a long marriage was choosing the right woman.
“It is recommended to get the right wife,” he said.
“We have been very happy, they have been glorious years.”
Mr Godfrey had been a reporter at the Evesham Standard before moving to the Daily Times in Worcester in 1933.
War broke out six weeks after the couple married and Mr Godfrey left his reporting job to enlist with the Royal Army Ordnance Corps.
He spent four years in the Army, but whenever he was away from home he would write to his wife, in St Dunstan’s Close, off London Road, Worcester, every day.
“It was the nearest I could get to her,” he said.
Mrs Godfrey, who was working as a clerk for the Air Ministry, looked forward to receiving his love letters. “If there was anything he could send with the letters, like sweets, he would,” she said.
After being discharged from the Army, Mr Godfrey, now 94, returned to his reporting job which had been kept for him.
He rose through the ranks to sports editor of the Worcester Evening News, and even after he retired aged 65 he continued to write features for the paper until he was 80.
On Tuesday the couple celebrated their anniversary with friends and family – including their son Richard and three grandchildren – at the Timberdine Home Residential Care, in Timberdine Close, where he is recuperating after suffering from a small stroke three weeks ago.
It is hoped he will be home next week.
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