A man who lived through nuclear tests in the south Pacific is celebrating 60 years of marriage.

Don Harding, 81, was wed to Brenda, 78, at Christ Church in Gravesend on March 16 1957, a year before he was sent to Christmas Island as Britain worked to bolster its nuclear arsenal.

Atomic and hydrogen bombs were set off on the island as countries prepared for the possible escalation of the Cold War, and many servicemen exposed to the radiation suffered devastating long-term conditions.

Some of them have developed cancer, and Mr Harding doesn’t think any of the men he kept in touch with when he returned home are still alive.

“We didn’t have a clue where we were going or what we were doing,” he said.

“We went to Honolulu and got to the island by ship, and that was the first we knew what it was all about.

“We had two bombs dropped on us while I was there and the radiation we were under was the equivalent of 112 x-rays.

“Lots of the children born to people who were there had birth defects.

“Wives back home were sending letters to their husbands saying don’t come home, our children would be monsters.

“The Australians and Americans were doing tests out there as well and their governments issued compensation money to everyone involved.

“Our British Nuclear Test Veterans’ Association went down that road but our government have never done anything because they said it wasn’t considered active service.”

Mr Harding, who grew up in Hawley, went on to be involved in a Nato operation in Germany before returning home and getting a job in industrial engineering.

He settled down with Brenda, who he had met while working just across the road from her in Stone.

They fell for each other despite a first date that didn’t quite go to plan.

“I asked her out and was going to pick her up at Gravesend to go to the pictures, but a thick fog came in and I couldn’t get there,” said Mr Harding. “There were no telephones and no emails, so the next day when I was at work I had to apologise and reorganise.

“We did go out in the end and it went from there.”

First they lived together in Gravesend, then moved to Hawley, and also had a home in Crayford for a time before moving back to Gravesend in 1976 following the birth of their son, Gary.

He was born deaf, which led to the couple setting up the Bexley branch of the National Deaf Children’s Society.

Looking back on their community work from their home in Hever Court Road, Mrs Harding said: “It took us to all sorts of places and we did all sorts of things, from a dance with Edward Heath to breakfast with the Duke of Norfolk.

“The Bexley Lions branch bought us a minibus to take the children out on trips and get them home at weekends. It was such a good time. I wouldn’t have changed it for anything.”

Life is rather more relaxed these days, with dinner alongside friends at their favourite restaurant — Alberello in Bexley — to mark their anniversary.

So what’s the secret to such a long and happy marriage, especially with the challenges they’ve faced?

Mr Harding said: “We’ve always worked together and supported each other.”

Brenda has supported me in my work but most of all it was when we started the National Deaf Children’s Society in Bexley.

“It was all about trying to do what we could for the other parents of deaf children. We supported each other a lot to do that.”