John & Gillian Ward the mayor and mayoress of Waverley, recently celebrated their golden wedding anniversary.

It took place on Saturday June 1, 50 years to the day after they were married at St. Andrew’s Church in Farnham. The occasion was an al fresco hog roast luncheon in their garden at Woodlands in Wrecclesham.

The party was attended by more than 70 adults, including their children and a number of close relations with a mixture of grandchildren, great nieces and nephews.

John and Gillian both come from army families and they spent their formative years following their parents who were stationed in places such as Germany, Gibraltar, Aden and Singapore. Gillian trained as a secretary and became a PA to a director of a merchant bank and then an MP. John started as a mining engineer, but became a geophysicist around the globe.

The couple met on a Tunisia beach where Gillian was on holiday and John was returning from a posting in Oman. John’s parents were living in Hovingham and Gillian’s mother had settled in Farnham, where she lived for more than 50 years. Naturally, they would get married in St. Andrew’s Church on June 1st 1974.

They started married life in Welwyn Garden City but moved around with John’s work, living in Glasgow, Jakarta, Esher, Tripoli before retiring to Farnham around 25 years ago. They have two children, Marcus who works as a government auditor and Gemma who is a qualified counsellor working with young people.