A COUPLE are celebrating more than 70 years of marriage having met at a dance in the days after the Second World War.

Harry and Betty Dean marked their platinum anniversary after marrying in Shalford in September of 1947.

Second World War veteran Harry, 95, and wife Betty, 88, a teacher, met at a dance in Earls Colne and after marrying moved to Cressing, where they still live.

Harry was born in Middlesex and grew up in Enfield before enlisting to the Royal Air Force aged 18 with his three brothers Reg, Ted and Len, who all survived the war.

He served between 1940 and 1946, flying in secret missions around occupied Greece and the Mediterranean.

He was sent to Basra in Iraq to fight in the Anglo-Iraqi War of May 1941, with the rebel govern ment of Rashid Ali al-Gaylani fighting the British forces in a guerilla campaign.

Harry said: “We would go on lots of secret missions throughout the war and they were very dangerous.

“The worst part was not knowing if you would come back that night.

"I came back after the war and I had annual leave in 1946.

“When I came back to Enfield, I was told to go to a place called Earls Colne. “I thought it was a place in Cornwall at first.

“I got the train from London and I didn’t even know where Earls Colne was, I had never heard of it before.

“I thought it was further down south actually and I was surprised when we were only on the train for a while.

“I was at Earls Colne Airfield on Newhouse Road, the Royal Air Force Air Base for some months and I enjoyed it.

“But then it closed down and I was sent to Wethersfield.

“You get to know the area and I went to a village dance one night which was being held in the vil - lage.

“And that’s where I met Betty."

Betty was born in 1929 and grew up in Shalford where she would later become a teacher at the village school.

Betty, who retired in the early 1990s, said: “We never thought it would get up to 70 years and it certainly doesn’t feel like it.

“We met at a village dance, it was where you met people of your own age but it wasn’t specifically for meeting other people.

“It was just a dance where you could go and have fun and dance to the music and the latest hits.

“But Harry and I met at the dance and we were married within four months."

The couple went on to have two children, daughter Rebecca and son Martin who died aged 59.

They have lived in a lodge in Cressing for more than 30 years, having lived in the village itself for more than 60 years.

The couple married on Wednesday September 24 1947 in St Andrews Church, Shalford.

Betty said: “We have great friends and family and we are happy.

“We celebrated our anniversary by staying in rather than going out, we bought a meal from Marks and Spencer’s and Harry and myself stayed indoors instead.

“We are so privileged to have spent more than 70 years with one another, even though this is not what it feels like at all.

“I wouldn’t change my Harry for the world.”