A MALVERN couple who nearly missed out on their wartime wedding are celebrating 65 years of marital bliss.

Sam and Freda Beard, of Regency Road, married on October 4, 1941, at Guarlford Church.

Sam, aged 86, and Freda, 85, were both born in Malvern and met at a friend's house in Hanley Castle back in 1938.

Sam served at a post in Iceland during the Second World War and the couple married while he was on a short embarkation leave in 1941.

But their wedding nearly didn't happen at all, after a desperate rush to get a licence.

Mr Beard said: "I had to go to the vicar at Guarlford Church, on my bike, then the vicar of Trinity Church, and then the ecclesiastical offices at Worcester where the woman told me there wasn't anyone to sign it - that's a lot of miles on my bike.".

Mrs Beard said it was a tense wait for her husband to be.

"We didn't know whether we would make it or not," she said.

But the couple did marry, and now have three grown-up children - John, Pauline and Richard - as well as seven grandchildren and some great-grandchildren too.

Pauline threw them a party to celebrate their blue sapphire anniversary, inviting 45 friends and family to the celebration at Guarlford Village Hall, part of the old malt house, which is next door to where Mr Beard was born and his wife used to attend pre-war monthly dances. The couple were entertained by country and western singers Eric and Jenny, and songs from their own daughter Pauline. They said it was a great celebration.

The couple said they believed destiny was the secret to true love.

Mr Beard said: "If you are really in love with someone, you will surmount any problems, if you're not then at the first high jump it will come crashing down."