From 'a romance of letter writing' to 60 years of happy marriage

JIM and Sadie Allen, who have lived in Edinburgh since 1966 and are about to celebrate their diamond wedding anniversary, look back on the wartime romance that led to their 60 years together.

JIM, 84, and Sadie, 82, were born and raised in Motherwell, and met when they worked together in Glasgow during the early years of the Second World War.

Shortly after, Mr Allen was called up to the Army and sent for training in London and Ireland, and he said their relationship became "a romance of letter writing".

In 1942, he joined the Seaforth Highlanders, and then in 1944 was sent to Normandy not long after the D-Day Landings.

He was injured and spent a month in hospital, before joining his battalion for the long fight through Holland and Belgium, fighting at the Battle of the Bulge.

Then, in 1945, as they pushed into Germany, Mr Allen was shot in the chest, with the bullet passing through his lung.

"I was lucky to survive, and I was sent to a local hospital and then eventually back to Britain," he said. "There's no question that it was Sadie's letters that helped me get through it all – we were both quite passionate about the writing, and we felt very close, although I don't think I had any thought of marriage back then."

Mr Allen reached the rank of captain, before returning home for good in 1947 and proposing to his sweetheart.

"I can't remember it exactly, but I had brought back a bottle of champagne and we drank that to celebrate," he said.

The couple married on June 11, 1948. Mr Allen went on to work as a sales representative in Bristol, where the couple had their only son, Douglas, in 1951.

He then took a job with Firestone Tyres and the family moved to Aberdeen.

Then in 1966 he decided to totally change career, taking up a role as a social work co-ordinator with the Church of Scotland in Edinburgh.

The pair moved to the home in Comely Bank where they still live today, and Mr Allen admitted he had chosen to work for the church to give something back.

"We are both regular churchgoers and I felt like I had been spared, so I wanted to do something in return," he said.

"It was a drop in money, but I was fortunate in that at that point in life I was able to do what I wanted."

Mrs Allen joined him in working for the Church of Scotland until they both retired in 1991.

They plan to celebrate their anniversary with family and friends, and when asked about the secret of their long and happy marriage, Mr Allen said it was down to tolerance and a lot of love.