WHEN Fred Thornton first asked June Clifford to go out with him, she said: “Nelson will get his eye back first!”

But he persisted and she relented, and on October 4, 1952, the couple were married in St Mary’s Church in Scarborough.

Today, the Thorntons, of a village near York, who have a daughter, Gail, and two grandchildren, Danielle and Bethany, are celebrating their Diamond Wedding.

Mrs Thornton, a retired York Hospital nurse, and her husband, a retired York Hospital engineer, said they would be having a family celebration over the weekend.