The end of the Second World War and a landslide Labour general election victory are among Britain’s most notable events in 1945.

But for this Dartford couple a wartime wedding was their landmark moment as it signalled the start of 70 years of wedded bliss.

Harry and Joan Wheeler of Gore Road, Darenth, first laid eyes on another in the classroom at York Road Junior School, but it was when the pair were teenagers that their relationship took off.

The couple were introduced by Joan’s friend Dulcie Brown, who lived a few doors down from Harry in Lowfield Street.

Harry, 91, and Joan, 90, bonded over a shared interest in ballroom dancing, one of many hobbies carried out in the years they have been together from golf to fishing and most recently keeping their garden prim and proper.

In January 1943, Harry joined the Royal Marines and was working at Arromanches beach in France on the day of the June 6, 1944, D-Day landings as Allied troops launched their invasion of Nazi-occupied Europe.

He remained in touch with Joan, who also helped the war effort by working for the Home Guard, by exchanging letters which the couple still at home.

In July 1945, they married at Holy Trinity Church, Dartford, in a service with no choir or church bells because of the war. They wed after a year-long engagement, sealed when Harry proposed with a ring he saved up three months wages to buy.

Moving in together for the first time, the couple shared a bedroom in Joan’s mother’s house in Gore Road, which was also shared with her younger brother with a partition halving the space in the room.

Until his retirement, Mr Wheeler worked as a manager at a number of butchers in and around Dartford.

He said there is even a picture in Dartford Museum of him standing outside one of the shops, which startled him when he came across it on a visit.

Joan was a shorthand typist for Dartford firm Beadles before she was employed as a secretary at the Metropolitan Canister Company.