Bideford Diamond Wedding

Christmas time has an extra special significance for Mr and Mrs F Thorne, 20 North Road, Bideford, who celebrated their diamond wedding last Saturday.
‘Christmas brought us together’ said 80 year old Mrs Thorne, recalling how 63 years ago, as a girl of 17, she was playing games at a Christmas party at Plympton on Boxing Day, and met a 23 year old docker from St-Giles-in-the-Wood, Mr Francis Thorne.
They were married three years later at Devonport, two days after Christmas.
When Mrs Thorne, then Miss Ellen Evans of Plymouth, met her future husband he was a docker at Devonport, in which employment he remained for 35 years. Before that he worked on the estate of the Hon Mark Rolle at Stevenstone, as a nurseryman for 11 years, after leaving St Giles-in-the-Wood school.
During the war Mr Thorne returned to North Devon with his wife to Alverdiscott. They had four children, three boys, one of whom died, and a daughter, Mrs V Hutchings, who came to live with them after she was widowed, and who looks after them now at their present address in Bideford where they have been residing for the past four years.
Their eldest son, Leslie, is living in Newcastle and is an overseer for the Admiralty, and their youngest son, Arthur, is a commercial traveller living at Leicester.
Mr and Mrs Thorne enjoy looking at TV and attending Bideford Town Mission, and having a quiet chat over tea with friends.
Among the many congratulation cards and telegrams received was a telegram from Canada from Mrs Thorne’s two sisters, and a letter from the Oddfellows Society, of which Mr Thorne was a trustee.
The Mayor and Mayoress of Bideford (Mr and Mrs A C Hooper), offering the good wishes of the townsfolk, were among callers.
The full Gazette article is dated 2 January 1959