Dulcie and Fred Hill celebrate their 70th wedding anniversary at home in Knodishall

A COUPLE celebrating 70 years of marriage have recalled their unforgettable first encounter as a German bomber flew overhead.

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Fred and Dulcie Hill met by chance in 1941 on Leiston’s Post Office Square, moments before three shells fell on the town.

After surviving the blasts they formed an unbreakable bond which would last another seven decades - and yesterday they celebrated their platinum wedding anniversary.

One of eight siblings, Mr Hill grew up in Yorkshire where he worked in the mines until pit closures led to his army call-up and a move down south during the Second World War. The former Royal Scots Fusilier, now 96, was tasked with scaffolding the beach defences and remembers clearly the day he met young Dulcie Barber: “Me and a mate were chatting up these two girls when a bomber came over and dropped one at the White Horse corner, then another at the Rec – which at the time we didn’t know had killed a young man – and a third at the school,” recalled Mr Hill.

“It was the other girl who I walked home that day! Dulcie was riled as the devil by that, so there must have been something there.”

The pair were married at Knodishall Church the following January and Mrs Hill moved into a prefab in the village while her husband served out another year with the Army in Germany. On his return, he worked as a civil engineer – a job that took him and his wife across the country and to Jamaica – before working on the first offshore platforms at Sizewell.

Mrs Hill, 89, who was born and raised locally as one of ten children, said: “There weren’t many places he went that I wouldn’t go too.”

The Hills, who have a daughter, three grandchildren and 14 great-grandchildren, now live at Knodishall Common – a stone’s throw from their first meeting place.

Before celebrating their long and happy marriage over lunch with family, the couple offered an explanation for their enduring love.

Mr Hill said: “All that talk about never having a cross word is nonsense. You can’t live together without having a set-to now and again.”

Mrs Hill agreed, saying: “We have never let a row carry on and have never gone to bed on an argument.”