Buckinghamshire County Council Chairman hosts afternoon tea for platinum wedding couples

Platinum couples Leslie and Joyce Hopson, Audrey and Albert Greenleaf, with Lord Lieutenant Sir Henry Aubrey-Fletcher, Chairman Patricia Birchley, Vice-Chairman Netta Glover and High Sheriff Peter Kara.

The Chairman of Buckinghamshire County Council has hosted an afternoon tea for three Buckinghamshire platinum wedding couples.

Not everyone can boast to have something in common with HM The Queen and HRH Prince Phillip but that’s exactly what three Buckinghamshire couples can say as they all mark 70 years of marriage having tied the knot within the same twelve months as the royal couple.

To mark such a momentous milestone Patricia Birchley, Chairman of Buckinghamshire County Council, invited all three couples to a celebratory afternoon tea at the Judges Lodgings in Aylesbury on Monday 20th November 2017.

Albert and Audrey Greenleaf, from Great Kingshill, celebrated their 70th anniversary on Wednesday 14th June 2017. The pair met through work when a trip to the cinema after their shift blossomed into a lasting romance. They moved to High Wycombe in 1962 having lived in Wembley and Essex.

Audrey now suffers with severe dementia and Albert is her full time carer at home but that is something he wouldn’t have any other way, Albert explains: ‘I look after her, she is the love of my life.‘

Joyce and Leslie Hopson were married in early 1948 at Wycombe Parish Church having met through work. They are proud to have reached this milestone anniversary and say they have always worked through any problems and never gone to bed without saying goodnight to one another.

Unfortunately the third couple Kathleen and Barry Wright were not able to attend the event at the last moment.

Married on Thursday 7th August 1947, Kathleen and Barry met at a dance in Wycombe Town Hall when Barry was home from leave from the RAF where he worked as an instrument maker. The ran the local newsagents in Penn for over 20 years. Kathleen puts the success of their long marriage down to being kind to each other.

Speaking after the event Patricia Birchley said: ‘It was a pleasure to meet and celebrate with these couples who have achieved something that not many of us are able to.

Their stories are all different but the one thing they each have in common is their obvious love and devotion to one another which is still going strong after 70 years together – a wonderful achievement, congratulations to them all.‘