A couple who met as teenagers are celebrating their 75th wedding anniversary – and chalking up a victory for love at first sight.
Robert Snaddon, 93, and wife Alison, 91, met at a dance in 1944 and were married the next year, when Alison was just 16 and pregnant.
Their love has survived family scandal, Robert’s national service posting to Angus and three-quarters of a century of ups and downs.
And despite failing eyesight, hearing and mobility, the devoted pair insist they are as much in love as the day they tied the knot.
They have no snaps of their wedding day on February 2 1945, since no one at the ceremony had a camera.
Alison did not wear a white dress as she was expecting, and instead opted for a lilac dress and jacket and a navy coat and hat when she walked down the aisle at St Mungo’s Church in Alloa, Clackmannanshire – where they still worship.
The couple went on to have two sons and a daughter and adopted another boy. Sadly only their daughter, also Alison, 71, is still alive.
Robert and Alison met at a dance on a Saturday night when Alison, 15, was expecting another boy to turn up.
He was late but Robert asked her to dance and they have been inseparable ever since.
Alison said: “I was 15 and Robert was a couple of years older. We met at a dance at the Friendly Girls’ Club when the town had a tea room.
“I was expecting somebody else to come but they were late coming in.
“I hadn’t met Robert before.
“He just came up to me and asked me to dance and we got on and that was it – we hit it off.”
Robert added: “They had dancing on a Saturday night and, of course, everyone went dancing.
“We went dancing as well and that’s where we met.
“It was love at first sight.”
Alison had left school the previous year and was working in an office, while Robert was working in an electrical firm where he was employed for 40 years.
He went on to do national service, posted in Arbroath and also in England.
The couple have seven grandchildren, and nine great-grandchildren.
Alison said: “We attend the church we got married in. I wore a lilac dress and a jacket and a navy coat and hat.
“I chose not to wear white because I was pregnant. My family were not happy, my parents were shocked and they were a bit angry.
“We didn’t have cameras at the wedding.”
They planned to go out to celebrate their anniversary but then had a change of heart.
Robert said: “We are celebrating our wedding anniversary at home.”
Alison joked: “No dancing.”
She attributed the secret to a long marriage to patching up rows.
Alison said: “If you have an argument, get it sorted out – don’t carry it on.”
