Don and Pat Simmonds tied the knot 65 years ago today

Don and Pat Simmonds, from West End, are celebrating their blue sapphire wedding anniversary with a special dinner with close family at their local pub, The Southampton Arms.

The 85-year-olds, who are both avid Daily Echo readers, met at the Candelight Club in Bedford Place in 1955. Merchant seaman Don was a First Class Waiter on the Queen Elizabeth, the celebrated ocean liner operated by the Cunard Line, at the time, while Pat was working in Dolcis shoe shop in town.

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The couple married two years later, on October 5, 1957, at St Mary's Church, the city's largest church, and renewed their vows at the same historic venue back in 2006. They have spent their entire lives together in and around Southampton.

Don and Pat have a daughter, Donna, a son-in-law Nigel and two grandsons, Daniel and Ryan. Ryan is married to Kathryn and their two children are Don and Pat's beloved great-grandchildren, four-year-old Zak and Phoebe, aged two.

Daughter Donna Carroll Dobson told the Daily Echo: "They are the most caring, kindest and most hard-working couple I know. 

"They never complain about anything and love seeing their great-grandchildren!"

Don spent ten years at sea and 28 years at Southampton Docks as a stevedore and then a foreman, followed by another ten years working for British American Tobacco (BAT). An avid gardener, Don's garden is his pride and joy.

Pat worked at several retail stores around the city before joining Chloride Standby Systems at Northam, where she worked for 13 years.

• The gemstone traditionally associated with 65th wedding anniversary celebrations could hardly be more appropriate. The blue sapphire is symbolic of loyalty and is also thought to bring inner peace, fulfill dreams and create prosperity.

• In 1957, actress Elizabeth Taylor was married for the third time to producer Mike Todd. Country music legend Patsy Cline also wed linotype operator Charles Dick in Winchester in the year the Suez Canal reopened, Harold Macmillan became British prime minister and the first artificial satellite to orbit Earth was launched.

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