A COUPLE who met at Colchester’s Paxman engineering firm have celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary.

Diana and James Mahoney, of Lucy Lane South, Stanway, were married at Christ Church in Sidcup on April 4, 1959. They were delighted to receive a congratulatory card from the Queen last week.

The couple had three sons, Philip, Simon and David and have five children and five great grandchildren.

Diana, 81, was born in Colchester and moved away when she was a child because of her father’s job.

But she returned and met Welsh-born James, now 84, at Paxman’s who had come to Colchester in his teens.

Diana said they met in Paxman’s drawing office.

She said: “Jim came in as a technical clerk. He saw me and it went from there.”

Diana said the secret to their happiness was “tolerance” and doing the best for one another.