WHEN Jean and Kenneth Chilton met as children at Sunday School, they never dreamed they would be spending their lives together.

But today the Cowley couple, pictured right and inset below on their wedding day, celebrate their Diamond Wedding anniversary after a lifetime of happiness.

They met as youngsters at the Cowley Road Methodist Church in Jeune Street, off Cowley Road, aged just nine and 11.

And despite becoming friends, romance was not to blossom until years later, when Mr Chilton served during the Malayan Conflict in the late 1940s.

Mrs Chilton, nee Hodges, said: “His mother asked me to write to him and so we became penfriends.

“When he came home, he did the only honourable thing a man could do then – he bought me a pair of nylons.

“Only the Americans bought their girlfriends nylons, so that was that, we were going out.”

Upon his homecoming, Mr Chilton was awarded the British Empire Medal.

Mrs Chilton said: “His mother and everyone were all ready to go down to Buckingham Palace but unfortunately the King – it was King George on the throne then – was too poorly.

“So a courier came and presented it at his home in Bullingdon Road instead.

“We never did get that trip to the palace.”

The couple were married at the Jeune Street Methodist Church on July 5, 1952.

They went on to have two daughters, Kay and Lynn, who gave them seven grandchildren, Anthony, Chantelle, Emily, Charlotte, Robert, Olivia and Thomas.

Mrs Chilton worked as an auxiliary nurse for the Churchill Hospital and her husband worked for British Telecom.

The couple are celebrating their anniversary with a trip on the Orient Express.