A COUPLE who met through the Salvation Army in Hereford, where they later held their wedding, are celebrating 60 years of marriage.

Beryl and Arthur Steady, of Whitbourne Close, have been life-long members of the Salvation Army and first met at the Hereford Corps, then based on Maylord Street, in 1944.

They married there on April 13 the same year.

As it was shortly before D-Day and Mr Steady was in the airforce, the couple only had two days off as a honeymoon.

After the war, Mr Steady's work as an auditor with what was then the District Audit, took the pair all over the country.

They moved to Essex, then Powick, Cardiff and Aylesbury, before retiring to Malvern in 1984.

The couple will celebrate their diamond wedding anniversary tomorrow (saturday) with a family meal with sons Keith, Jeffrey and Martin, followed by a buffet in the Malvern Salvation Army Centre the next day.

Asked what the secret of a happy marriage was, Mrs Steady said: "I don't think there's a secret - you've basically got it in the marriage service. It's to love and cherish each other, to have and to hold.

"It's just about sticking to your wedding vows. It's quite an achievement these days."