Nostalgia: Golden couple who keep it local are paid surprise visit from afar

Published on Saturday 29 August 2009 11:29

A COUPLE from Penicuik have celebrated their diamond wedding anniversary with family and friends from the other side of the world.

James, 89, and Agnes Blair, 82, marked 60 years of marriage by dining with family and friends at the Navaar House Hotel near their Penicuik home.

The couple's niece, Moira Doyle – who was their five-year-old flower girl –flew all the way from Melbourne to surprise the couple on their special day.

Mrs Blair said: "It was great to see her and we just hope she comes back again next year."

Mr Blair attended Kirkhill and Jackson Street schools before becoming a message boy for Wilson's Store. A year later he joined Valleyfield papermill as an apprentice electrician.

Mrs Blair, a former pupil of Jackson Street School and Penicuik High, worked as a finisher at Valleyfield and was on her way home when she met Mr Blair.

She recalled: "He had just got a new motorbike and asked me if I would like to go for a run on it. We used to go away all over the place on the motorbike."

The couple, who both grew up in Penicuik, married at St Mungo's Church on 20 August, 1949.

They stayed in Mr Blair's family home on Cranston Street, where they have lived for the past five years.

The couple have one daughter, Marion, 59, two granddaughters, Susan, 35, and Gillian, 29, and two great-grandchildren, Erin, five, and Kyle, two.

Mr Blair said the secret of a long and happy marriage was to be "easy going" and to "work things out together", while Mrs Blair added: "I have no complaints whatsoever!"

Mr Blair worked at Valleyfield for 40 years with a break of five years when he served with the Royal Navy during the Second World War.

Initially he was transferred to Coastal Forces where he served on a motor gun boat and was tasked with the dangerous job of helping to keep the shipping lanes open across the North Sea.

In the 1970s he joined MacTaggart Scott, the maritime engineering firm in Loanhead.

Mrs Blair, who worked as a lab assistant at the Bush Vet Field Station for 20 years, said: "We have just been so happy with everything and have been very fortunate to get a card from the Queen."