War love letter was spark to marriage

A LOVE letter written amid the horrors of war was the spark that ignited a marriage that is still going strong after 60 years.

Harry Runciman was a young soldier serving in the Parachute Regiment at the end of the Second World War when he had the notion to write to a young woman he had met in a dance hall in Pencaitland, East Lothian.

The young woman wrote back and shortly after he was demobbed in 1948 he proposed. They were married on August 12, 1950 and have just celebrated their diamond wedding anniversary.

Harry, 84, said: "I first saw Jenny at the dance hall in Pencaitland. I knew her for quite some time before we actually started courting.

"My regiment took over from the Japanese in Singapore, Malaysia and Java and then I was sent to the Middle East to carry out peacekeeping duties in Palestine."

The regiment was in Netanya, the city now part of north-west Israel which became infamous as the site of the hanging of two British intelligence officers by Jewish gangsters Irgun, close to where Harry was stationed at the time.

His job was to hunt for bombs and weapons smuggled in by Irgun and The Stern Gang, another armed gang fighting for the establishment of Israel.

When Harry finally returned home in January 1948, it wasn't long before they tied the knot at Pencaitland Parish Church.

"It was a good wedding, as far as I can remember," Harry said. "We had the reception in the Ormiston Church Hall because you weren't allowed alcohol in the Pencaitland one. We had about 140 people there as Jenny worked in the local Co-op, so we had quite a circle of friends from the area.

"After the wedding we lived at her mother's house for a while before eventually getting a house in Ormiston."

The house had no electricity and no water.

"I had to carry water up the stairs and the slops back down," laughed Harry. "But we we're happy and we managed, and eventually we moved to George Crescent in 1963 where we still live to this day."

Harry and Jenny, 83, marked their 60 years of marriage with the original bridal party, including best man David Fleming and bridesmaid Peggy McIntosh.

The couple will also enjoy the company of their three children, David, Linda and Tommy, six grandchildren and their families at a celebratory meal at The Rocks in Dunbar tomorrow.

Having lived in Ormiston all his life, Harry, who worked in a number of industries before retiring including construction and the National Coal Board, said that he was sad to see the village losing some of the friendliness it once had.

"It's changed quite a bit really," he said. "It used to be that everybody knew everybody else but now I can walk down the street and walk past people who I have no idea who they are and don't say 'hello' to you. They go to bed here and then go to work somewhere else."

For Harry and Jenny, the secret of a long and happy marriage has simply been to talk through their problems and get on with each other.

"We seem to get on so well together," he said. "We've done everything together. We both like working in the garden, we both play bowls and we still go dancing every week. It's nice we still go dancing after all these years."