MARRIED couples often argue and make up – but Fred and Vera Lamb have one disagreement on which neither will back down.
That quarrel is politics.
"I'm a true blue and she's a true red," says Fred, 87. "We say things like, 'you're not putting that poster up in the window'."
Despite this, the couple today celebrate 60 years of what they say has been a wonderfully happy marriage.
The couple, of Ridgeway, near Ambergate, met at a dance at Belper Assembly Rooms in 1949.
Fred said it was love at first sight.
He said: "She looked a bit lonely and I was attracted to her.
"I asked her to dance and she said yes. I thought I must make arrangements to meet her again and it took on from there."
Vera, 81, added: "I looked across the room and I said that is the man I'm going to marry."
The pair wed at St Luke's Church, Heage, on March 27, 1954, and had their honeymoon in the south of France.
They went on to have two daughters, Deena and Jay, and now have three granddaughters and one grandson.
After marrying, the couple lived in Sunny Hill, Derby.
Ten years later, they moved to a house that overlooks the countryside in Crich Lane, Ridgeway – where they have lived for nearly 50 years.
Fred said they have been very lucky. He said: "We've had a very good social life and we've travelled well.
"We've covered most of Europe and have been to countries like Australia, America and Russia three times.
"We've been blessed with good health, too."
Two years into their marriage, Fred left his role as assistant power controller on the railways for a job at Rolls-Royce.
He joined the rocket division and later became a draughtsman, working on the RB2-11 engine that led Rolls Royce into a crisis and receivership in 1971.
The project's spiralling costs meant only a Government bailout saved the company from extinction.
Fred recalled: "It was an anxious time. A lot of my friends lost their job but I kept mine.
"The parts were too expensive. Rolls-Royce was losing thousands of dollars on each engine.
"It was kept hush-hush so it was quite a shock when the company went into liquidation."
Vera spent the bulk of her working life at Litchfield Bros, where she worked as a machinist.
She has also been a committed member of the Heage Women's Institute and the Royal British Legion.
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