A pair of lovebirds who stole away to Arbroath to get married have returned to the town to celebrate their golden wedding anniversary.
Alister and Maureen Petrie, who live near Croydon in Surrey, were not sure Maureen’s father would approve of his then 19-year-old daughter marrying a 26-year-old motorbiking Scotsman.
Alister, who was born and raised in Arbroath, worked at a local Co-op before taking a job at Gerrard’s boatbuilders in the town.
In 1953 he joined the army and was posted to Surrey, an area he decided to make his home after coming out of the forces and taking on a role within the civilian staff at a local Ministry of Defence base.
The couple met at a London skating rink despite neither of them actually wanting to go skating.
Alister said, “I was asked by a friend to go skating in London but I didn’t want to go. I ended up going, however, and saw this girl skating round and round on her own.
“I gave her a wee nudge and said ‘hello’ and she immediately asked me which part of Scotland I was from. I said ‘Arbroath’ and she said ‘Really? That’s where my mum comes from’.”Reluctant skaterMaureen, who was also a reluctant skater that day, was brought up in the small Surrey village of Hooley but her mother was a Swankie from Arbroath’s fishing community.
The pair hit it off and courted for 10 months before Maureen popped the all important question.
“She actually asked me to marry her because it was a leap year,” said Alister. “Her mother knew we wanted to be married but we were not sure about what her dad might say.
“I was 26 and a bit older than she was and I had a big motorbike. Things were a bit different then than they are now so we decided to come up to Arbroath to get married and face the consequences later!”
The couple were married at the registrar’s in Arbroath on July 26, 1960, after they had raised money for a suit and wedding dress through picking berries in the area.