Platt diamond wedding

The couple enjoyed get-togethers with their daughters Sue and Caroline, and their grandchildren, who visited for an informal party and lunch.

They have five grandchildren - Sue's sons Philip, Nicholas, Adam and Jack, and Caroline's teenage daughter Rosie.

Don - real name Oliver - grew up in East Ham, London, while Beryl was born in Coulsden, in Surrey.

"Don was the eldest of four boys," said Beryl, "while I was an only child. And now our older daughter has four boys, and our youngest daughter one girl, so it has repeated."

The couple met when they both worked for the same firm in the City of London - Don was an accountant and company secretary, and Beryl began working in the same office.

Beryl said: "I was his secretary...He was dictating to me - and he has been ever since."

They married on April 9 1949 and settled in Purley, Surrey, where Beryl had been living, and brought up their two children there, with Don commuting every day into London.

When Don was 60 they moved to Jersey for five years where he worked still within the financial world, and Beryl helped out as his secretary part-time. This was a great time for the family, and Beryl remembers much socialising: "I never knew we had so many friends - we had fourteen visitors one weekend."

She began painting at this point, an interest which at 83 she still maintains - she is a member of both Little Common and Bexhill art clubs. She also enjoys doing puzzles and crosswords, while Don, 88, has always been practical at heart, able to fix anything broken the family would bring to him.

He said: "Most of all I should have been an engineer because I like messing about with cars and boats, engines mainly, and I did like messing about with electric wiring."

Of their 60 years together Beryl commented: "I didn't really realise that it was unusual to be married this long. i just thought - it's another year...but then I began to think of all our friends, and we are almost the only couple left, so I began to realise it was a bit more important really."