BRIDEGROOM OF 72

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 55, Issue 167, 29 April 1935, Page 8

BRIDEGROOM OF 72

WIFE FIVE YEARS YOUNGER,

OLD FRIENDS AT THE ALTAR. Though the culmination of a boy and girl romance of more than 50 years ago, the marriage in Brisbane recently of Envoy Robert Thompson of the Salvation Army, to Mrs Mary Malam was the outcome of a courtship extending oyer a few brief w'eeks. The bridegroom .is 72 years of age and his bride five years younger. The ceremony took place at (lie Salvation Army Citadel. The hall was packed fully half an hour before the scheduled time of the wedding, while several hundred interested spectators and friends assembled outside to cheer the couple at the conclusion of the ceremony.

Mr Thompson, who has been an active worker in the Salvation Army for about 45 years, first met his bride when they were Sunday school classmates at the Methodist Church in Brisbane, more than half a century ago. Though attracted to each other, their w T ays soon parted, and it was not until. about 30 years later that they met again at Gympie. Both were then married, Mrs Malam having a grownup family. Again the couple drifted apart and it was only a few weeks ago, upon learning that Mrs Malam w'as residing at Albion, that he called upon her, and renewed their friendship. His first wife had died in 1925, when Mrs Malam was a widow. A brief courtship resulted in a proposal and the marriage was arranged.

“Nervous? Not a bit of it,” emphatically declared the bridegroom after a simple yet impressive ceremony had united the elderly lovers. “I must admit that it was a little new and strange to me, thought I have been married before.

“I realise it is most unusual two people getting married at our' -age,” Mr .Thompson added, “and for that reason the number of congratulations w'e ha.vo received has done much to ease our minds. The most surprised people were members of my own family. I broke the news first to my sister at breakfast one morning.

“I got up from the table and 1 said, ‘This is the last cup of tea I’m going to drink in your house’—then noticing her hurt expression, I added—‘as a widower.’ Naturally, I was a little anxious as to how they would take it, but they have all rallied round and made the wedding a complete success.” Though reiterating that she was “as cool as a cucumber,” the bride was palpably nervous. “Of course, I have been through it before,” she said after the ceremony, “and 1 it still is much the same, I must say this confetti is a big improvement at modern weddings. The last time I was married the rice they threw' almost cut my face.” \