They said it wouldn't last... but we are still in love 70 years later

Dorothy and Reg hit platinum milestone

- JOHN KELLY

A YOUNG bride who appeared in a 1954 Daily Mirror report on teen elopers yesterday celebrated 70 years of happy marriage.

Dorothy, then an 18-year-old hairdresser, and boyfriend Reg, 20, a French polisher, were told by their parents they were too young to marry and that their love would not last.

So they skipped off to Scotland, where marriage laws were different, and tied the knot in a quick wedding ceremony in Dumfries.

Their wedding featured in our article highlighting the number of young English couples sick of having to wait until they were 21 before they could marry without their parents' permission.

Dorothy wore a Bon Marche navy blue two-piece suit with a navy and white hat and white lace gloves.

Reg wore a £10 suit he saved up for months to buy from Bold's in Kingston-upon-Thames, then in Surrey but now in South West London.

Witnesses were hastily gathered, the wedding breakfast was a cake and a few sandwiches and the pair left immediately after the ceremony to catch a steam train home so they could go back to work.

Now, 70 years later, they still treasure the Mirror cutting they kept to remind themselves of their big day on August 18, 1954.