AS a young courting couple, Megan and Denis Bollington declared their love through letters.

Denis even proposed to his wife through a letter.

And the writing was certainly on the wall as they are now celebrating 70 years of marriage.

Megan and Denis first met in London in 1945.

Denis had a friend in the RAF who was married to Megan’s sister.

The pair were living with Denis’s parents in London, as they had nowhere to go during the war.

But this good deed was to ensure Denis and Megan had their first meeting.

Megan, who lived in Wales, had come to see her sister in London over Easter, and stayed with Denis’s family.

Megan and Denis started writing to each other and met again on Whitsun weekend at the end of May.

The pair shared 50 love letters including the one in which Denis proposed to Megan. The couple got married in London in July despite having only known each other for three months.

Denis, 93, said: “We were mutually attracted to each other, it just came naturally. “We just loved each other, it’s difficult to explain but we wrote about 50 letters to each other, and we still have them.”

Megan, 92, who was in the Women’s Land Army during the Second World War, added: “There was just something there, I don’t know what it was but I wouldn’t want my life to be any different.

“When I first met Denis it was at Easter. On the Easter Monday he had to go back to Southampton where he was based, but I didn’t have to go back to Wales until the Wednesday.

“When I got home there was a letter from Denis and he proposed in that.

“It took a while for me to say yes as I didn’t see him again until the end of June.”

After the engagement Denis spent two weeks meeting Megan’s family in Wales. The couple then lived in London until 1968.

Megan said: “When we were first married I didn’t have a job.

“My first job was in London for a company that cleaned phones, it taught me how to get around London.”

On leaving the RAF, Denis worked for Ordnance Survey, having trained as a land surveyor.

They left London in 1968 and moved to Braintree for a while, before moving to Colchester in 1987.

The couple have four children - Brian, 68, Denise, 66, Paul, 60 and Lynn, 57.

They said there was a six-year gap between Denise and Paul as Denis had been ill with TB, and was recovering for two years.

Denis said the key to their happiness was real love. He said: “A lot of people get confused between real love and sex.

“In our case it was real love. Life has revolved around family and we have been very happy.”

They claim to have never had any arguments throughout their seven decade marriage.

Denise said: “They have always supported all of us children. IWe could talk to both of them about really private things, it has always been very family orientated.”

Denis and Megan will officially celebrate their platinum anniversary tomorrow and will have a big party on Saturday.