Platinum wedding anniversary: Burgess Hill couple celebrate 70 years together

Derek and Joan Rebbetts, of St John’s Avenue, mark their Platinum wedding anniversary on Tuesday, September 6, having got married in 1952.

Derek, 90, and Joan, 91, first came to Burgess Hill in 1961, moving down from North London where they grew up.

“When we joined Burgess Hill it was a small town, very compact,” said Derek.

He explained that they came to the area for his job as a pensions consultant for Noble Lowndes and Partners in Croydon.

At first they did not know anybody, but they made friends, partly through The Methodist Church, and enjoyed being part of Burgess Hill’s community.

Derek said: “Joan was involved for many years in the Comptonaires, which is a singing group, and I’ve been involved in the Model Railway Club virtually since the time we first came to Burgess Hill.”

Joan said she loved singing and dancing while Derek always had an interest in trains.

Derek said: “We’ve enjoyed travelling by train and we’ve travelled across Canada, America and Australia.”

The couple met in 1943, having both been at the same grammar school in North London.

They became closer after the Second World War finished and started to chat to each other during a school trip to Box Hill.

The couple got engaged in 1950 but Derek went into National Service in the Air Force from July 1950 to July 1952.

He was posted to Egypt in May 1951, staying in the Middle East for 15 months.

During that time they wrote to each other and Joan made preparations for the wedding.

Their honeymoon was two weeks in Guernsey, travelling there on the steamer from Southampton.

The couple now have four children, 12 grandchildren and 16 great-grandchildren.

Joan said the key to a happy marriage is being ‘in tune’ with each other and finding lots of things to do together.

She said: “We’re always out and about and we get around a lot and we’ve had a lot of holidays, which we’re still trying to do.”

Derek and Joan have two anniversary celebrations planned: one in Hassocks this week and another in the midlands on Saturday, the day after the wedding of one of their grandsons.