Barely heard proposal led to a match lasting 50 years

Eleanor was just 15 when John dropped a note in her pigeonhole asking for a date.

She said: "I had just left Moray House school and went to work for an accountancy firm, who sent us on comptometer training.

"A comptometer was an old adding machine, about the same size as a typewriter but much heavier. We had a little pocket on the back of our chairs with our worksheets in it, and I started getting these little notes dropped into it by one of the boys that worked for the company that serviced the machines.

"It was John's way of asking me out on a date. We used to meet on the stairs at the back of the school, and at night we would go to the pictures."

The couple drifted apart when Eleanor's training ended, but around 18 months later she bumped into a mutual friend and passed on her regards.

The following day John, now 72, phoned her and asked to rekindle their romance.

Eleanor, 71, added: "We went out for another year or so and then one night he took me to the jazz club on Victoria Street and proposed. I couldn't hear what he was saying for the noise that the band were making in the background, but I got the idea."

The couple were married on 12 March, 1960 at St Paul's in Newington, with a reception afterwards at the Carlton Hotel. Eleanor said: "It was a lovely ceremony. I still have the menu and the top of my cake.

"Whenever I look back at the photos I'm always surprised at how young we look. I don't know if we were young looking for our age, or we just look a hell of a lot older now!"

Daughter Susan was born in 1964, followed five years later by their son Gary.

John continued to fix comptometers, and later calculators, and when the children were grown Eleanor went back into accountancy at Chiene & Tate in Queen Street.

In the early 1980s John set up his own company, Office Calculator Services, which he ran for the next 20 years before taking a job as a driver for Hertz car rentals, a job he retains part-time today. Eleanor moved to Marks & Spencer for eight years until her retirement six years ago.

The couple have enjoyed trips to Thailand, Europe and most notably Florida. Eleanor said: "We love going to Florida and we're going again in May.

"We celebrated our anniversary at the Craigiebield Hotel in Penicuik, with our two children and their partners and our four grandchildren, and when we got home we had a glass of champagne together.

"I think the secret of long and happy marriage is to always look out for each other, to stay the best of friends and always be the most important people in each other's lives."