Three brides and three brothers mark 60 years
A trio of brothers have all managed to reach a landmark marriage celebration.
Jim, Reg and Frank Bowdler all married their sweethearts in a five-week period in summer 1950 - and this summer all three couples are marking 60 years together.
More than 120 family and friends joined in the joint celebrations for them at Burridge Social Club, near Fareham, on Saturday.
Unfortunately, one of the guests of honour was absent - Frank, 86, was unable to make it because he is in hospital being treated for pneumonia, but his wife Hazel was there.
Former navy sailor Jim, of Oslands Lane in Swanwick, said: 'The gang was not complete because Frank wasn't there.'
Eldest brother Jim, 88, met Effie Moody, 81, at her workplace, Gladys Jean's Hairdressing Salon in Park Gate, but it took him another two years to pop the question.
He became the first of the brothers to get married at their local church in Sarisbury Green on July 8.
Although he was the last to ask the big question, he was the first to name a date.
Jim joked: 'I spurred them on.'
After their marriage he joined his wife's family firm, taking a job at Moody's Boatyard in Swanwick.
The six have remained firm friends, and although they no longer all go off on their motorbikes to watch speedway races around the south, still live close by and regularly get together.
Reg and Pat Walshe followed suit on August 7 in Woolston, with Frank and Hazel Wells in Southampton Registry Office last on August 11 - after having been the first to become engaged two years earlier.
Reg, 84, from Bursledon, said the secret of all their long marriages was 'tolerance' and added: 'It was just sheer coincidence. We didn't think it was unusual or odd at the time and we didn't plan it that way.'
Ian Steele, Reg and Pat's son-in-law, said of the celebratory evening: 'It went really well.
'And it was really enlightening having such a gathering of the older generation and everyone had a great time.'
Between them, the three couples have eight children, 16 grandchildren and five great-grandchildren - the youngest being Isabelle, for Hazel and Frank, at just two weeks old.
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Saturday 26 May 2012
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