TOMORROW, Saturday, March 30, is a diamond day for Reg and Iris Smith of Newton St Cyres. They were married 60 years ago on that day at Newton St Cyres and have lived in the village almost ever since.

Their children went to school there, they have four sons and one daughter plus six grandchildren.

They were married on Easter Monday, 1959, a fine day, and Iris had five bridesmaids and one page boy.

Iris is a Crockernwell lady, a Callard before she married. She had four sisters and two brothers. Reg, one of 13 children, was from Exmouth. He became a cook, working in Wickersons’s Bakery then the Devonia Cafe, making the cakes.

His National Service was with the Army Catering Corps, then back home to work at the Maer Bay Hotel in Exmouth.

Iris’s family moved around a bit. They were at Rockbeare during the last War and Iris well remembers the bombing.

They later moved to Broadclyst, then Poltimore and Oldridge with Iris going to school in Exeter and Crediton, then to Newton St Cyres.

On leaving school Iris worked at the Crediton Crisp Factory beside the Crediton Inn on Mill Street, training as a State Enrolled Nurse at the City Hospital in Exeter.

Iris loved dancing, often coming into Crediton where the late Reg and Vi Botterell ran dances and she won many dancing competitions throughout the area.

That was how she and Reg met. Iris and a friend would take the bus into Exeter, then train to Exmouth to go dancing at The Regal. Reg would walk her to the station and then Iris and her friend Ivy would walk home from Exeter in their evening finery.

Their first home on their own was when they moved into the new council house they now own at Newton St Cyres and where they still live.

For 25 years Reg worked at the Black Horse Cafe which became a Berni Inn on the edge of Exeter, then with the Quicke family at Newton before going to Exeter University as a porter for 15 years and at St Luke’s on Heavitree Road.

Before she had their children, Iris was a cook at Queen Elizabeth’s Grammar School for Boys at Crediton, the school her own sons had attended.

She later returned to nursing and then worked for a time with Reg at the University.

They played skittles, had a family team, the Extras and played darts.

They raised hundreds of pounds for CLIC, the cancer charity, through dances and bingo evenings at Newton St Cyres.

Iris used to be a member of the Women’s Institute and the Mothers’ Union. For 11 years she won the cup for gaining most points at Newton St Cyres flower show.

Iris, who will be 84 this year and Reg, 86, will be celebrating their 60 years of marriage tomorrow evening with a party for family and friends.