Couple's love endures

"It was love at first sight," says 92-year-old Winifred Mills in her thick Yorkshire accent.

"When I first met him I got a feeling right from the top of my head to the tip of my toes."

Mrs Mills was reminiscing about her first encounter with Lawrie, now 93, whom she met at a screening of the Clark Gable film, It Happened One Night, in Penistone, South Yorkshire, in 1938.

The couple married nearly a year later aged, 17 and 18. On September 23, 2014, they celebrated their 75th anniversary.

The couple live in Horsley with youngest son Simon, 50.

They have six children (five boys and one girl), 14 grandchildren and 14 great-grandchildren. Some of the family gathered at the Harbourfront Restaurant on September 21 for a surprise anniversary lunch.

Mrs Mills said the secret to a long marriage was simple.

"If we have a bit of an upset, we make up," she said.

"Each one of you has different ways and you've got to learn to live with all their ways.

"We've always been very much in love and we still are."

Mrs Mills said Lawrie was the first and only boy she had ever dated.

They were due to be married on August 25, but Lawrie, an Army Territorial (reservist) had to leave the coal mine where he worked on August 23 to prepare for war.

He then contracted diptheria and was in hospital until September 23, when they got married.

The couple moved to Sydney in 1974 when Simon was 10. They moved to Horsley about 12 years ago.