Neighbours who stayed together for sixty years

Bob and Netty Galloway were neighbours on Thorntree Crescent in Prestonpans. They got to know each other attending a friend's wedding and were themselves married on 9 September 1950.

Bob, 82, was once a well- known charity singer and was described as the "Al Jolson of East Lothian".

He said: "I did lots of shows in Fife, the Borders, Edinburgh, and all across East Lothian. I did a lot of charity work, a lot of singing. We raised lots of money."

Netty, 83, would go along to a lot of the shows where her husband was singing. She said: "I quite enjoyed it. We had quite a social life."

Bob has given up singing since his retirement, but was asked to sing again recently by the president of the Royal British Legion social club that the couple attend. "His voice is still good but he didn't fancy it," Netty revealed.

Bob served in the navy from 1945 to 1948. He was assigned to a converted tanker and spent a lot of time refuelling ships out in the Atlantic.

He was with the transport police in the 1950s at Edinburgh Waverley station and then became a long-distance lorry driver.

He said: "I was driving all over the whole country. From Land's End to John O'Groats, literally."

Netty worked as a waitress for 20 years after gaining experience on her family's chip van in Prestonpans. She was a waitress at the City Chambers for 10 years.

The couple's son Gordon Galloway, 53, said of his parents' long marriage: "It's excellent. It's some achievement, isn't it. They've done great."

The couple received official congratulations from East Lothian Council and the deputy lord lieutenant, and there was the traditional congratulatory card from the Queen, which Netty said was "very nice".

She added: "I was kind of expecting it. My friend got one a while ago on her anniversary so I thought we'd get one."

However, Bob wasn't so impressed and said he thought the Queen could have smiled a bit more on the picture.

Netty said the secret of success for a long marriage such as their own was "to just get on with life."

Bob agreed with his wife's assessment: "It's a bit of give and take, and trust."

The couple have two children, Gordon and Lorraine, along with three grandchildren - Gillian, 26, Ross, 24, and Jennifer, 23.