JOHN and Doris Owens might be celebrating their 70th wedding anniversary but they are like a pair of teenagers joking and teasing each other on their sofa.

The couple, from Flag Lane North, Upton, were just 15 years old when they started courting, perhaps drawn to each because they were both orphans who were brought up near Welshpool.

Welshman John and Scouser Doris, aged 92 and 93 respectively, got married in the village of Pen Rhos, near Gobowen, on September 17, 1941, when he was on leave from the Army.

At the time Doris was nursing wounded soldiers in Liverpool during the Blitz and John had already survived the evacuation of Dunkirk despite her fears he might turn up on a stretcher.

After the wedding it was back to nursing for Doris and camp for John until he was posted to the desert of El Alamein, Egypt, and they did not see each other for three years.

Happily they were reunited when war ended in 1945 and went on to have daughter Carol followed by four grandchildren and 14 great grandchildren. John picked up the career in joinery and carpentry he had started prior to the outbreak of war.

Asked what first attracted John to Doris when they were teenagers, Doris jokingly demanded to know claiming he had never told her before.

With honesty and with humour, she added: “I was not sure, but he was mad on me. What convinced me was that he was very kind to his grandmother and looked after her and I thought ‘If he looked after his grandmother, he will look after me’.”

John said initially it was Doris’s looks that first engaged his interest which made her chuckle. As to the secret of their happy relationship, he says ‘we stuck to our vows’, while Doris adds ‘just working together’.

The couple will celebrate with family and friends at the Royal British Legion Club in Upton on Saturday.