WHEN James and Dorothy Leng tied the knot in September 1939, the world was a profoundly different place.

Now, 70 years later, the Pickering couple, both aged 91, have been able to celebrate seven decades of marriage, marking the occasion by having a family party.

They met outside what is now the town’s Natwest bank in the spring of 1939, when James was a painter and decorator working on the bank and Dorothy was a nanny to the bank manager’s children.

Several months later, the Lengs got married, at the church of St Peter & St Paul, in Pickering.

But that year James, who is also known as Ted, joined the army, serving until 1945, when the Second World War ended.

He was a dispatch rider in the Argyll & Sutherland Regiment, which was one of the first to go into Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in Germany.

It was not a death camp, but many thousands of people died there – as the Allies discovered when they liberated the camp. James was awarded several medals for his efforts in Germany, France and Belgium.

James and Dorothy have four children, nine grandchildren, 14 great grandchildren and one great great grandchild.

When asked what the secret is to a long and happy marriage, Dorothy said: “Faith – that’s what you have to have.

“And give and take – you can’t have it always. You’ve got to give and take.

“That’s the only way we’ve gone about it. And trusting – if you don’t trust anybody where are you?”