A couple who celebrated their diamond wedding are living proof there is such a thing as love at first sight.

Long lasting love - Mary and Tom Lee Picture: ROBIN WOOSEY

Tom and Mary Lee, of Clayspring Close, Hockley, fell instantly in love when their eyes first met on a farm 60 years ago.

They were brought together by World War Two when Paddington-born Tom, 84, was stationed in Scotland with the Devonshire Regiment.

Mary, 78, from Maybole in Scotland, was in the land army. Tom, who was then 24, used to visit 17-year-old Mary to get milk which is how their paths first crossed.

She said: "We married three months after meeting, it was love at first sight. I went back home and told my family I had met someone but they said the marriage would not last. They got that wrong."

Tom and Mary, who have now lived in Hockley for more than 20 years had a party with friends to celebrate their anniversary.

Published Friday August 13, 2004

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