THEY met at Botley Youth Club when they were in their teens.

After a lifetime together they moved more than 10,000 miles away to set up a project to save an endangered species.

Now Bruce and Maureen Englefield have celebrated their golden wedding anniversary by renewing their vows back in England – and at the same Hampshire church where they first tied the knot 50 years ago.

Nearly 80 friends and family attended the special service at St John’s Church in Hedge End to celebrate the great-grandparents’ lives together – which has included Bruce working as a sound engineer for Benny Hill and recognised with prestigious awards after founding a project to save the Tasmanian Devil.

Daily Echo:

Bruce and Maureen Englefield on their wedding day

Bruce, the son of Botley police officer Jack Englefield, met Maureen, the daughter of Major Tony Hawke MBE at the youth club after both sitting their exams in June 1961 and they married on April 3 1965.

Bruce said: “It was lust at first sight and it grew into love. I knew it was a totally different feeling and that’s remained forever. That binds you together through thick and thin if you really love each other.”

Maureen, a former St Mary’s Technical College student and daughter of Major Tony Hawke MBE, trained as a midwife and by the 1980s she had become director of midwifery and women and children’s health services in Devon.

Bruce, a former Barton Peveril College student and son of Botley police officer Jack Englefield, got a job as a sound engineer.

He worked for the BBC and Thames Television and later became technical director on programmes including The Benny Hill Show, talent show Opportunity Knocks, sitcom George and Mildred and chat show Des O’Connor Tonight.

In the 1990s Bruce achieved a masters degree in animal behaviour counselling at the University of Southampton and the couple set up a sheep farm and animal behaviour practice in Devon.

During this time Bruce came third in the English Sheepdog Trials and represented England three times at the international competition.

Then in 2001 the animal lovers emigrated to Australia, along with their children Kevin, 46, Sandra, 43, grandchildren and great-grandchild after buying a wildlife park in Tasmania, now known as East Coast Natureworld.

They have since founded the Devil Island Project in 2007, which aims to protect the Tasmanian Devil from devil facial tumour disease.

Their work was shown on TV with documentary The Devil Island last year and Bruce has been recognised with the Tasmanian of the Year award in 2008 and Australian of the Year award in 2010.

Bruce also ran the London Marathon three times and Maureen took part twice, raising £100,000 to build their first Tasmanian Devil quarantine facility.

For more information about the Devil Island Project visit savethetasmaniandevil.com.au.