A CHURCH-going couple who have spent being years a major part of a Hampshire community will be celebrating their diamond wedding this weekend.

Former Romsey magistrate Roger Bellis and his wife Patricia, who was a governor of Romsey School, will be joined by their family when they toast to 60 years of wedded bliss tomorrow.

The pair can remember when they first met, when they went to the beach on a Sunday School trip, when he was 13 and she was 12.

Ever since then the grandparents have been together, despite Roger serving in the Mediterranean with the Royal Navy on anti-submarine frigate HMS Whirlwind.

They both said that their faith has helped them stay together.

“She was the most beautiful girl in Barking and the she put up with me.

“We both had the same sort of commitment to God. We had the same sort of ups and downs.

"We just kept going. It was our Christian faith that was our guiding light,” Roger, 80, said.

He added that it was the ability to “hold your hands up” and admit mistakes that helped.

“We both try to live God’s way and put him first,” Patricia, 79, said. “You think 60 years: where’s it gone?

"It’s gone in a puff of smoke. You just go one day at a time, sometimes it's good some times it's bad.

"You just try to look after each other.”

Originally from East London, the couple married in Edinburgh while he was serving and eventually moved to the hamlet of Newtown, between Awbridge and Lockerley.

During the 30 years they lived there Patricia, who had begun her working life as secretary to a Lloyds under-writing syndicate, was a manager at Awbridge School, a governor of Romsey School and ran the playgroup at Timsbury.

They came to Hampshire to follow Roger’s career with HM Customs and Excise and in addition to his work in Southampton Docks, one of his roles was as relief excise officer at Strong’s Brewery.

A Romsey Magistrate for 25 years, he was captain of Romsey Boys’ Brigade for eight years and throughout their married life, the couple have been involved in church-related community activities both here and in France.

For 20 years they helped French Christians in small churches where they became part of the community at Laboule in the Ardeche area, about 65 miles southwest of Valence.

Now they live “right in the heart of Romsey” in Greatbridge Road and Roger said he now shares drinks with those who appeared before him in the court years ago in the Conservative Club.

They are also involved in the New Life Church which meets in the Romsey School, Priestlands.

On Sunday they will be joined by their four sons – Peter, Jeremy, Matthew and Andrew with their partners – and their three grandchildren.