Real lives: Diamond couple are still sparkling after 60 years

The couple, who have been married for 60 years, have spoken of how their love of music helped them meet and has bound them together over six decades. Mr and Mrs Stewart celebrated the event at the village’s Coronation Inn with friends and family. And although they had differing musical tastes as youngsters, it did not stop them getting together. Margaret, 80, was born in nearby South Middleton and schooled in the village she lives today. She was a member of a pipe band when she encountered David, 79, who is originally from Falkirk, but moved to the area as a youngster so his father could work at a local colliery in Newtongrange. At that point in the 1950s, David was in what would have been a “boy band”. Margaret joked about her husband’s motives for joining her musical set-up. She said: “I was playing in the pipe band and David was performing with a group of lads known as the Square Hares. “He then became the pipe band’s drum major – because he always liked to be at the front.” Shortly after they became musical cohorts, they were married in Gorebridge, by Rev William Clark, on October 13, 1951. At that point they took the ambitious decision to leave Midlothian and head for Germany as David had joined the army. There, they had their first child, Brenda, and after they returned to Scotland they had four more – Desmond, Colin, Kenneth and Pauline. They did not forget their musical roots during their time on the continent, and continued to play actively in the Bilston Glen Colliery Pipe Band. Before he retired, David took up a role at Mayfield Church in Edinburgh as a church officer, while Margaret held down a job at one of the city’s most prestigious department stores, Jenners. They now live in the village’s Hunterfield Road and their family extends to ten grandchildren and 12 great-grandchildren. Margaret added that she had some advice for younger couples hoping to reach the milestone point of 60 years of marriage. She said: “I think you just need a bit of tolerance – putting up with the good and the bad.”