​Lancing couple celebrating 65th wedding anniversary say their first meeting was ‘an absolute fluke’

Jeff and Jean Whittington, 86, may never have met that snowy evening on February 6, 1958, as Jean was reluctant to go out in the cold weather.

But she and her friend had promised to go to the dance at the Naval Club in Tower Road and almost the moment she walked in, Jeff spotted her and said she was the woman he was going to marry.

The couple have lived at Courtfields, Elm Grove, for a few years but they were previously in Nelson Close for 55 years, where they brought up their two children, Lynn and Clive.

Not only was it by chance that Jean was at the dance, Jeff said he might not have been there either.

"It was an absolute fluke," he said. "I went for an interview to be a bandsman in the RAF. I didn't expect to get it but I was offered the job, only they said I would have to sign up for nine years. I didn't want to do that, so I turned it down. It was the chance of a lifetime but if I had taken it, I would never have met Jean."

Jeff was brought up in Lancing and Jean came from Hove but she worked for a packaging firm in Lancing. A friend had been trying to persuade her and another friend to go along to the Naval Club and she finally agreed.

Jean said: "It snowed that day and I said to my friend I am not going but my friend said we had promised. As soon as he saw me, he said 'see that girl, I am going to marry her'. And he did."

Jeff had signed up for five years in the RAF as a bomb armourer and he was being posted to Cyprus, so they were married on December 27, 1958, in order for Jean to be able to go with him.

They were together in Cyprus for two years and it was there that Lynn was born.

Jeff said he had always worked in maintenance and after making a wooden panel off his own bat to hide machinery, he was moved to the carpentry workshop for the rest of his service.Jean pointed out: "He is a perfectionist."

When he left the RAF – a decision they made between them, like every other decision in their life, Jeff joined H.D. Tribe in Worthing, building coffins in the workshop.

Jean said: "We always talk things over together, and we have always done that."

He was there for 40 years and Jeff made a name for himself winning many awards for the beautiful garden at the front of the Broadwater funeral offices. When he retired at 60, he continued to work in the funeral industry as a celebrant.

The couple also went on to work with Dutch missionary Brother Andrew at Open Doors, helping persecuted Christians around the world – a role that took Jeff to Columbia, China and Africa. Jeff said: "I have had a really good life."

The couple have seven grandchildren and ten great-grandchildren, with another on the way.

They celebrated their blue sapphire wedding with an afternoon tea party at Courtfields and asked for donations for Chestnut Tree House children's hospice, which raised £110 for the charity.