Diamond wedding joy for Hatch Warren couple (From Basingstoke Gazette)
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Diamond wedding joy for Hatch Warren couple
9:09am Friday 14th September 2012 in News By Gazette reporter
Vera and Ken Plackett
A COUPLE celebrated their diamond wedding this week, 60 years after tying the knot at Southwark Town Hall.
Ken and Vera Plackett were married at the age of 18 after two years of courting.
The pair, both 78, and from Hatch Warren, Basingstoke, will be joined by more than 60 friends and family on Saturday (September 15) for a celebration party at Dummer Golf Club.
The couple are expecting a congratulations card from The Queen. Ken said: “It will be an honour to get the letter from The Queen, especially as in the same year we have both reached Diamond anniversaries.”
The pair first met in 1950 at a dance held in the basement Oakley Place Methodist Church, in South East London.
Ken said he knew straight away that Vera was the one for him. “We clicked straight away,” he said. “From then, we did everything together.”
He eventually popped the question two years later, and the 18-year-olds wed at the register office in Southwark Town Hall, in south London on September 13, 1952.
But weeks later, the Placketts were separated as Ken, a national serviceman, was sent on a two-year posting to Singapore as an ambulance driver with the Royal Army Service Corps during the Malayan Emergency.
After returning to the UK, the couple eventually moved to Winklebury, Basingstoke, in 1964, with Ken working as a lorry driver for Sainsbury ’s, and Vera as a supervisor with the AA.
“Moving to Basingstoke was the best thing we ever did,” said Ken. “It was a new life for us and the kids.”
Vera and Ken have raised seven children, and now have 21 grandchildren, who will be joining them for the diamond celebration.
Vera said she is looking forward to the party. “It will be great getting all the family together, and seeing us all together – it will be a proud moment.”
And Ken added: “Vera is definitely the same person I fell in love with. In fact, I love her more than ever. She is terrific.”
