A GOLDEN couple who met while serving in the Army have celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary.

Bill and Margaret Taylor, of Coleridge Road, in Chilton, marked the anniversary on Friday (May 16).

The couple, who met in Salisbury and who later served together in Borneo, Asia, and Germany in the 1960s, are to celebrate with a family meal.

Mrs Taylor said: “You have to work at marriage and our secret to a long and happy marriage is give and take.

“Everyone has arguments and if anyone says they haven’t had any disagreements they are wrong.”

Mr Taylor, of Chilton, was a corporal in the Army when he met his wife, formerly of Lanarkshire, in Scotland, who was a private.

The pair played on the men’s and women’s darts teams in the Wheatsheaf pub, in Wilton, near Salisbury, in Wiltshire.

They married in Salisbury registry office on May 16, 1964. Mr Taylor headed to Borneo soon after and he was followed by his wife.

A spell in Mönchengladbach, in West Germany, followed before they returned to London, where Mr Taylor worked in Whitehall and his wife retrained as an Army nursery teacher.

They retired in 1976 and moved to Chilton where Mr Taylor joined in with the leek club and snooker teams.

Mrs Taylor helped at Feryemount care home, Ferryhill, and Henderson Community House, Chilton, and is chairwoman of Chilton West Residents’ Association.

Her community spirit also saw Mrs Taylor become treasurer of the Sedgefield Residents’ Association.

They have four children, Andrew, Barry, Karen and Fiona plus three grandchildren Luke, Sarah and Lucy.