It's a diamond wedding day in Mountfleurie '“ had you Herd?

Archie and Mary Herd began writing to each other while he was serving in the Suez Canal region with the Royal Marines.

And the couple enjoyed a delightful start to the new year by celebrating their diamond wedding.

Archie and Mary will be well remembered by many as full-time stewards at the Earl Haig Memorial Club in Leven, from 1976 to 1992.

Leven man Archie (82) was in the Royal Marines for 12 years and also worked on an open cast coal site on the Standing Stane Road as a banksman, an assistant to the digger drivers.

Mary – who is 80 later this month – was originally from Greenock and worked as a window dresser in her younger days.

She began corresponding with Archie after one of his colleagues placed a request in a newspaper for people at home to write to the servicemen at sea.

The couple met on one of Archie’s visits home and were married on January 3, 1956.

They lived briefly in Deal, Kent, and Portsmouth, before returning to Fife.

Archie and Mary, from the Mountfleurie area of Leven, enjoyed a family celebration at their daughter’s home in the town to mark their 60th wedding anniversary.

The couple have three daughters and one son, along with six grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren.

Archie’s career at sea also included a spell as escort to Lord Louis Mountbatten, when marines were being trained for action in the Korean War.

Archie said the secret of a long and successful marriage was “having to be together and working together”.