A chance Christmas card led to a lifetime of romance for diamond wedding couple Faith and Arvan Gordon.

The pair celebrated 60 years of marriage with a second blessing at Ledbury Parish Church, a family meal in Leominster and an open house at their Longacre home on Saturday. Much- admired was a card from the Queen.

The couple first met in autumn 1940, when Mr Gordon was 20 and serving with the Army Medical Corps. His future wife was a 17-year-old schoolgirl in Bedfordshire, where Mr Gordon's unit was posted.

Three year's later, and now with Army Intelligence, Mr Gordon sent a Christmas card to Faith's family. The couple met again, were soon engaged and married at St Pancras' Church in London in January 1944

At the time, Mrs Gordon was a trainee teacher and Mr Gordon knew that he would be part of the Allied invasion of Europe later that year.

Mr Gordon found himself in Normandy just days after D-Day. He had carried out an investigative trip to Nazi Germany just before the war and, with his knowledge and German and French language skills, he was eventually posted to Montgomery's headquarters in Brussels. In Germany, he was given the task of seeking out Nazi documents that had been hidden in salt mines.

After the war, Mr Gordon took a degree in modern languages at Jesus College, Cambridge, and the Archbishop's Diploma in Theology.

He became a teacher in Leicester and Ramsgate, while Mrs Gordon looked after their four children, Jennifer, Alison, Rachel and Timothy.

Mr Gordon worked at Keston College in North Kent, investigating the condition of Christianity in communist countries, before retiring and moving to Ledbury in 1991. He is the chairman of Ledbury Probus Club and a reader at the parish church. Mrs Gordon designed a flower festival for the church in 1995 and still delights in flower arranging. The couple both enjoy weekly yoga classes.

Mrs Gordon believes that "listening" is a vital ingredient of marriage. Mr Gordon praised the "grace of God" for blessing their relationship. They have eight grandchildren and five great grandchildren.