When sailor Sid Anning met teenager Barbara Pickett on the dance floor in Gillingham more than half a century ago, they were both swept off their feet.

They had their first date to the cinema the next day and within three months Sid, then aged 21, and Barbara, just 16, were engaged to be married.

Sid brought his sweetheart a solitaire ring and she did extra hours at the factory where she worked to pay for the wedding.

And then Sid was called on board his Chatham-based ship HMS Cavalier to accompany her on a refit in Gibraltar.

It was a voluntary task he had accepted before the couple met, so they said their fond farewells with dreams of their nuptials on the horizon.

While at sea Sid received a devastating blow - a “Dear John” letter from Barbara ending their relationship.

Sid, now aged 75, said: “It was a bolt out of the blue. I just assumed she had found somebody else and sadly had to accept it.”

“I was too young and did not like Sid not being by my side. I was simply afraid...” - Barbara Pickett

But Barbara, who described Sid as her first love, had not dumped him for another suitor.

She said: “I was too young and did not like Sid not being by my side. I was simply afraid.”

Turn the clock forward and in the next 54 years Barbara married a soldier, lived all over the world and had two sons. Her husband Herbert Watson died 15 years ago.

Meanwhile Sid found love with a former shipmate’s wife and they had a daughter together. Sid adopted her two sons but after 42 years of marriage they divorced.

Both Sid and Barbara have thought about each from time to time, with Sid regretting that day he set sail from Chatham Dockyard.

He said: “I should never have gone. If I had known what was going to happen I would have sorted a quickie wedding and taken Barbara with me.”

Over the years Sid tried to track down his ex-fiancee, including an appeal in our former sister paper Kent Today.

It was only when his cousin Ken Anning started to compile a family tree that he saw a glimmer of hope. Within two days, armed with Barbara’s date of birth and maiden name, he had traced her to Rainham.

Sid was initially nervous about writing to her.

He said: “I did not know if she was married and did not want to invade her privacy. So I wrote a very polite letter and sent pictures and details about my life.

"People would think it ridiculous for this to happen at this time of our lives but we are so happy... " - Sid Anning

"At the time I remember my cousin warning ‘you are playing with fire’ and ‘it will open up a can of worms’.”

By the time the letter arrived in July, Barbara had moved to her current home at Queen Mother Court in Borstal. A neighbour forwarded the post.

Barbara said: “I had butterflies in my stomach. Only the day before I had been thinking ‘I wonder what’s happened to Sid. I bet he’s settled with about six children’.”

And the rest is history. Last Monday, Sid travelled from his home in Plymouth to meet Barbara, 72, at the care home in Borstal Road.

When Barbara first set eyes on Sid on the dance floor at the ballroom in Canterbury Street in 1964 it was his smile that caught her eye.

When he walked through the reception door, it was that same grin that grabbed her attention.

She said: “We just gelled immediately. We had a kiss and a cuddle. We started life together and we are now going to finish it together. I believe in destiny and this was meant to happen.”

Sid said: “ It’s uncanny. People would think it ridiculous for this to happen at this time of our lives but we are so happy. It’s as if we have never been apart.”

Their first date, second time round, last Thursday was to Elizabeth’s restaurant in Rochester High Street where Sid wined and dined his lady.

A week later and they are already talking about a Christmas engagement, possibly with a ceremony on board HMS Cavalier, now a tourist attraction at Chatham Historic Dockyard.

As Sid said: “It was the Cavalier that took us apart, now let it pull us back together again.”

Sid was the founder and former chairman of HMS Cavalier Association.

He organised a campaign to stop the Royal Navy destroyer being sent to a theme park in Malaysia and won his battle for her to be preserved as part of the nation’s heritage.

He joined the navy at 15 and left as a petty officer in 1975 after 17 years service.