Royal greeting for Newmarket couple to mark their diamond wedding

A Royal greeting from the King and Queen put the sparkle into a diamond day for Newmarket couple Alan and Sue Coe who celebrated 60 years of marriage on Saturday.

The teenage sweethearts whose romance had begun at a dance at the Carlton Hotel in Newmarket High Street back in 1959, and were married at the Cathedral Church of St James in Bury St Edmunds, hosted a party for 40 including their family and friends at the Heath Court hotel to mark their diamond wedding.

Alan, now 85, has lived in Newmarket all his life. Born in the one-time nurses’ home and children’s ward in Cardigan Street he went to Newmarket Secondary Modern School.

After a five-year upholstery apprenticeship he worked as a carpet fitter for the former High Street department store Ashfords.

He then established his own eponymous carpet business which today is still run by his son Martin.

Just sweet 16 when they first met, Sue, now 82, had her heart set on going to London to train as a nurse.

And after completing a pre-nursing course she spent the next three years training at the capital’s Royal Free Hospital.

She returned to Newmarket to work as a ward sister at the town’s general hospital before becoming a practice nurse at the Rookery Medical Centre.

She also helped to establish two new local GP practices, one in Mildenhall and another in Barrow, where she spent 12 years before she retired.

The couple, who live in Downing Close, have two children, son Martin and daughter Melanie, who followed her mum into nursing and works at the Royal Papworth Hospital in Cambridge, and three grandchildren.

During their early retirement years Alan and Sue were inveterate travellers and their adventures included a round-the-world trip which included 19 flights in six weeks.

Now their time is spent much closer to home but the sparkle which first ignited their romance more than six decades ago still remains.

For Alan the secret to a long marriage can be unlocked with two words, yes dear.

For Sue it’s just as simple.

“He has been my best friend since we first met and he still is.”