Diamond couple Nev and Terry Cooper celebrated 60 years together with a return visit to the hotel where they spent their honeymoon.

The couple both lived in Newquay in Cornwall and met in 1952 where Mrs Cooper, now 79, was training to be a choreographer and taught Mr Cooper, 81, ballroom dancing.

Mr Cooper, an RAF Sgt Aircrew on Avro Lancaster bombers, said: “She was trying to teach us RAF guys with two left feet. It just so happened that I was posted onto Lancasters which were down at St Mawgan which is the airfield just outside the town so that’s what we started dating.”

Two years later the pair, who live in Bottlesford, near Pewsey, married on September 6 in a quiet ceremony at St Swithen’s Church in Bournemouth, where Mr Cooper’s parents lived.

After the wedding they travelled to Stratford-upon-Avon and stayed in the Swan’s Nest Hotel to where they returned last weekend.

On their most recent stay at the hotel they received a congratulatory message from the Queen.

The couple, who have a 58-year-old daughter Francesca and a 57-year-old son Nicholas and four grandchildren, spent many years living abroad, including in Canada, Germany and Australia.

Mr Cooper retired from the RAF 40 years ago and began making military computers and Mrs Cooper owned a fashion business after giving up dancing when she was diagnosed with arthritis.

They returned to the UK to look after Mrs Cooper’s mother and moved to Bottlesford ten years ago.

Mrs Cooper believes that the secret to a successful marriage is tolerance.

She said: “You have to be tolerant, it’s been very many long years and you have to put up with a lot. I’ve had to put up with the military. I was married to the air force as well.”