A COUPLE who say they are still as much in love as the day they met on a steam train in 1951 will celebrate their diamond wedding today.

Reg and Marina Pinker held a party at South Leigh village hall on Sunday, where they had their wedding reception in 1955.

The couple invited more than 100 friends and family to celebrate with them.

Mr Pinker said the couple first met in 1951 when he was getting the train home from the Witney Feast festival.

He said he had boarded the last train in Witney to Eynsham when Marina Kew jumped up beside him. Mr Pinker said: “She was a stunner, she really was.”

Mrs Pinker said: “I think it was Reg’s looks that attracted me.”

The couple courted for 18 months before getting engaged. Then Mr Pinker was posted to Germany to do national service in the Army.

The couple were reunited in 1955. Soon after they were married in Mrs Pinker’s home village of South Leigh at St James Church.

The couple had their first child Chris, now 59, in 1956, followed by their daughter Mandy, now 55, four years later.

Since retirement the couple, who now live in Carterton, have devoted time to their four grandchildren and four great-grandchildren. Mr Pinker said the secret to a long marriage is give and take.

He said: “It’s all about give and take. We’ve got a very strong connection and I would say we are still as in love as the day we met.”