Mr and Mrs W J G Hearn

Yesterday was an especially happy day for Mr and Mrs W J G Hearn, of The Bungalow, Saltrens, Monkleigh, and their family, for a family party was held to mark Mr and Mrs Hearn’s golden wedding anniversary.

Mr and Mrs Hearn were married at Torrington Baptist Church by the Rev. Franklin Owen. Early in their married life they lived at Torrington, but since 1913 they have been at their present address.

They received many messages of congratulation and good wishes on the anniversary from friends over a wide area.

Mr William James Gribble Hearn, now 71, came from Frithelstock. He learnt his trade with the late Mr W Pope, of Torrington, as an engineer and was later with the Devon Trading Co. at Bideford as a maintenance engineer until his retirement some six years ago. He continues very active in his retirement and still occasionally puts in a day’s work as required, but his principal occupation is his garden.
His wife, who was a Miss Alice Maud Davey, of Torrington, before her marriage, is 68. She learn her trade as a dressmaker and can recall working for a shilling a week during her apprenticeship.

They have four sons: Mr Robert T Hearn, of Buttgarden Street, Bideford, who is an automobile engineer; Mr John Hearn, of Monkleigh, a carpenter; Mr James Hearn, who lives at home with his parents and is an engineer at Weare Giffard; and Mr George Hearn, of Northam, who is employed by a Bideford timber firm.

Asked her recipe for happy married life, Mrs Hearn told the Bideford Gazette she thought the key to it was to be found in realising that it was a partnership and in understanding ‘give and take’.

Gazette article dated 15 June 1956