A diamond couple who met in Burma at the end of the Second World War are celebrating their 60th Wedding anniversary.

Gordon and Doris Samuel met and married in 1948 after they were demobbed from the armed forces.

The couple were both born in Burma but were evacuated to India during the height of the war.

Doris was 16 at the time the war broke out. She said that as a teenager, despite the danger, she found the evacuation quite exciting.

“We camped out near the airport and went there every day to see if it was our turn to be evacuated.

“My husband later told me that he missed the evacuation and so he trekked from Burma to india. It took him 17 days walking up and down the hills in a war zone.”

Gordon, 86, was in the regular Burma Intelligence Corps and was responsible for gathering information about enemy troop movements.

Doris, 81, said: “When we got to India I joined the Navy, my older sister had already joined up. I lied and told them that I was 18 and because my birth certificate was back in Burma they took my word for it.”

She worked in Bombay as a cipher operator.

She said: “When the war was over they asked us if we wanted to be repatriated to Burma or go to England.

“We decided to go back to Burma. My husband was the customs officer there and so we met when I came back into the country. I started work for a firm called William Jack as a secretary.

“He sent a friend of his to ask me if I would go out with him. I told his friend that if he wanted to see me he should come and ask me himself.

“We went out on our first date on January 1 and were engaged on July 4. We got married on December 29, 1948. It was a bit of a whirlwind romance.”

Gordon and Doris’s three sons jokingly refer to their parents as the Posh and Becks of Burma due to their father’s glittering career as a national footballer.

He was crowned footballer of the year in 1953 and played in the Burmese side in Japan, Singapore and Delhi.

In 1959 Doris decided that she wanted to move to England.

Doris and Gordon duly left the country with a measly £220 in their pockets. They travelled to England with their three young sons Gordon, 8 Walter, 5, and Leslie, 3, on a boat.

The journey lasted 35 days and Doris was terribly ill throughout the whole trip.

Her brother got the young family a flat in Tulse Hill and Doris worked for a tobacco firm while Gordon put in many hours overtime in his job as a clerk with British Rail as they saved up their money to buy a house.

Doris said: “Once we had bought our house I told him to calm down and stop working so hard and cut down on the overtime.”

The couple, who now have seven grandchildren, moved to a larger house in Thornton Heath and have been living in the same place for 45 years.

Doris said that she and her husband are never apart. “We do everything together. Sometimes we have arguments just like anyone else but we get on very well. A happy marriage is all about give and take I suppose.”

Doris said that her only minor annoyance is her husband’s obsession with football.

“He is an Arsenal supporter but also supports Crystal Palace. He constantly watches football in the TV, as soon as I leave the room he switches it on. I used to watch it with him when I was younger but I prefer cricket.”

The couple’s family are throwing them a party in January.