ONE of Winston Churchill's wartime drivers and the sweetheart he met at a village dance celebrated their diamond wedding anniversary yesterday.

Stan and Anne Carrick, of Maple Grove, West Cornforth, County Durham, met in 1945 at a dance at Cornforth Community Centre.

The pair married a year later, at Coundon Methodist Church, and have happily waltzed their way through six decades together.

Mr Carrick was called up to join the forces in 1939 and drove for a general in London during the Blitz, but after several months of dodging bombs he asked for a transfer.

Mr Carrick, 89, said: "I'd had enough. I joined the staff at Downing Street and became one of three men who drove Winston Churchill around in a black armoured car.

"I often drove Mrs Churchill, the lads used to call me her blue-eyed boy because she liked me - I didn't make a fuss like the others.

"It was an honour to drive for Winston. I met lots of important people, even the King one night when we all had to take shelter in the dining room during a raid."

After leaving the Army, as a colonel, Mr Carrick worked as a salesman then in a furniture factory and Mrs Carrick was a receptionist and hairdresser.

Before retiring completely the pair were live-in caretakers at Elvet Church, in Durham City. They have one son, David, a granddaughter and great-grandson.

Mr Carrick said: "We've never had a real barney and always worked well together."

Mrs Carrick, 85, added: "We have been dance daft all our lives, it has been good to dance together and kept us young."