Happily married for 70 years

Instead she made a successful career in her marriage.

Now 70 years later with six children, 19 grandchildren and eight great grandchildren, Mirabel and Robert Govan are still happily married.

They are one of the longest married couples in Bexhill.

The Clavering Walk couple celebrated with 60 family and friends at the Jarvis Cooden Beach Hotel.

"It was good fun and we saw a lot of people we hadn't seen in years, including two from Scotland," said Mrs Govan.

Both their parents were doctors but the profession skipped a generation as Mr Govan worked for ICI. However, three of their children have followed medical careers.

They met at a London School of Economics dance and were married at a church in Stamford Brook on December 22, 1934.

Money was short in the early days and when rationing came with the war, Mrs Govan remembers making a duffel coat for one of her children out of her old winter coat.

Mr Govan, known to his wife by his second name of Morrison, only reverted back to Robert after the death of his father with whom he shared the name. The couple, both 91, moved from Tunbridge Wells some 26 years ago to their Bexhill home where they were expecting to share Christmas with some of their family who were coming to stay.