A chance encounter on a train led to 60 years of marriage.

When Dennis Cross got on to a train and sat down next to a pretty stranger he could not have known it would lead to a marriage that would last a lifetime.

He was 19 and on leave from serving as a Corporal in the Royal Army Ordnance Corps in Iraq during the Second World War when he met his wife to be. She was a cook in the WAF based at Brize Norton and he was travelling back from his Charlbury home when they met in the railway carriage.

The couple married on December 7, 1946, have lived in Nine Acres Lane, Charlbury, for 53 years. Mr Cross, 80, said: "I got on the train and sat down next to a very pretty girl and struck up a conversation. It was worth it."

Mrs Cross, 84, said: "There were lots of soldiers getting on and off the train but he came and sat next to me."

They were married while he was on leave. After the war they lived in Mrs Cross's home town of Feltham for three years.

The couple then moved to Charlbury and Mr Cross worked for the Pressed Steel Works and Morris Motors. She worked for Osburton Radiators as an inspector before becoming a full-time mother to Alan and Denise.

Mr and Mrs Cross now have four grandchildren. When asked the secret to such a long and happy marriage she said: "You have to be able to laugh at your troubles and make up after your arguments."