David and Margaret Richards, 85 and 81 respectively, have received a congratulatory card from the King and Queen as part of their celebrations, which involved a dinner for two and overnight stay at Les Rocquettes Hotel over the weekend.
‘The King’s card came early last week. It was lovely to read it,’ said Mr Richards.
‘I think over the years Margaret and I have always had respect and consideration for each other’s views, and had a lot of laughs, too.
‘That’s been important, especially in tough times.’
Mr and Mrs Richards met in 1961 at a dance at the former Royal Hotel in Town.
‘David wasn’t supposed to be there, he and a friend gatecrashed it,’ said Mrs Richards.
‘All of a sudden, this very nice fella was dancing with me, but it wasn’t David, it was his friend.’
A couple of days later, the couple saw each other again while shopping in Town, and this time Mr Richards could not resist approaching his future wife.
‘I was so taken with her smile,’ he said
‘I asked her if she wanted to come to my birthday party, even though I hadn’t actually organised anything at that point.
‘I had to get some friends together quickly and make it look like it was all planned.’
The pair began going on dates soon afterwards.
‘We got on so well. We both loved the Guernsey coastline so a lot of our dates were spent on the beach,’ said Mr Richards.
‘We even went up to Alderney for a holiday once, which back then was unheard of.
‘My Mum was horrified when she found out.’
When eventually it came to proposing, Mr Richards kept it low key.
‘I dropped Margaret back at her parents’ house one evening and I just asked her whether she would like to get married.’
Mrs Richards said the proposal caught her slightly off-guard.
‘I was quite bewildered. However, I said yes.’
The couple were married on 22 April 1965 at St Matthew’s Church. They spent their honeymoon in Jersey, where they subsequently moved to live for 11 years, between 1966 and 1977.
Mr Richards worked as a teacher, while Mrs Richards trained as a seamstress.
The couple had both of their children while in Jersey – Simon, in 1971, and Helen, in 1973.
In 1977, the family came back to Guernsey and moved into a house at Albecq, where Mr and Mrs Richards have lived ever since.
Mrs Richards sewed from home while raising the couple’s children, while in recent years she has worked extensively on the couple’s garden.
Mr Richards has been heavily involved in local cycling, playing a role with Island Games teams of both Guernsey and the Isle of Wight in the late 1980s and early 1990s, and he also completed a Land’s End to John O’Groats cycle ride in 2000.
He played a variety of stringed instruments, including a banjo, in a ceilidh band between 1997 and 2017.
In recent years, the couple have made a conscious effort to enjoy the simpler things in life.
‘We love a trip to the Co-op, and I still do a bit of gardening when I can,’ said Mrs Richards.
They also now have three grandchildren.
Reflecting on their marriage milestone, Mr Richards said the couple had always tried to take enjoyment out of things and remain optimistic.
‘Even through all the bad times, you just have to try to smile through and say “tomorrow will be better”,’ he said.
‘And make sure to laugh – we laugh a lot,’ said Mrs Richards.
You need to be logged in to comment. If you had an account on our previous site, you can migrate your old account and comment profile to this site by visiting this page and entering the email address for your old account. We'll then send you an email with a link to follow to complete the process.