FORMER Witney Citizen of the Year Don Deaney and his wife Janet are celebrating 60 years of happy marriage today.

Mr and Mrs Deaney are marking their Diamond wedding anniversary with a special family meal at The Windmill restaurant in Asthall.

Army veteran Mr Deaney, 82, is well known in the town after serving as an electrician for 40 years with SEB.

He was also made Witney Citizen of the Year in 2012 due to his work as vice-chairman, welfare officer, caseworker and appeal collector for the Witney branch of Royal British Legion, which he joined more than 20 years ago.

Mr and Mrs Deaney, who live in Curbridge Road, met in the early 1950s at a dance in Filkins.

Mrs Deaney, 83, said: "A friend of mine took me along and I met Don there.

"I knew him for two weeks and suddenly he was off to the Army, serving during the Suez crisis.

"I did not see him for 18 months. He wrote to me every single day but I didn't write every day.

"When he came back we got together more seriously and then eight months later we were married at St Mary's Church in Witney."

After marrying, the pair lived in Filkins for nine years before moving to Curbridge Road in Witney in 1965, where they still live today.

Their son Christopher was born in 1958, son Mark in 1961 and daughter Katherine in 1964.

Speaking of the secret of a long and happy marriage Mrs Deaney said: "I think it's all about sticking together through thick and thin and really listening to each other and learning as you go."

Mr Deaney added: "We had our ups and downs but we were always on good terms at the end of it."

The great-grandfather was named a Diamond Champion by Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall in 2013.

The Diamond Champion Awards were launched in 2012 to mark the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee, and set out to reward older people who volunteer in their local communities and go the extra mile to make a real difference to other people's lives.

A former secretary and caseworker for the Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Families Association (SSAFA), and the Royal British Legion, Mr Deaney still supervises the distribution and collection of Poppy Appeal boxes in Witney each year.

He also works for Age Concern and helps with repatriation ceremonies for troops killed in Afghanistan and every May he visits Oxford's twin city of Leiden in Holland to lay a wreath on Dutch Remembrance Day on behalf of the RBL.

To celebrate their anniversary Mr and Mrs Deaney will enjoy the family meal tonight, and in two weeks' time there will be a party for friends and family at their home.

The couple have nine grandchildren and one great-grandchild Rubie, who is nearly three.