DIAMOND WEDDING

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32252, 21 March 1970, Page 2

DIAMOND WEDDING

The first couple to be married at the Edgeware Road Methodist Church—on March 23, 1910—are celebrating their diamond wedding I anniversary this weekend.

Mr and Mrs Alan Buckley, of Tuatn Street, were married by the Rev. W. C. Oliver, and, to mark the occasion of the church’s first marriage were given a large family Bible by the trustees. Mr Buckley joined the staff of “The Press” in 1900, and left in 1916 to go to the “Lyttelton Times” to take r

charge of the process department there. He retired 28 years later, hut a few years after returned to “The Press” for two years, leaving in 1951. Before moving to Tuam Street, Mr and Mrs Buckley had a farmlet at Barry’s Bay, on Banks Peninsula. A keen photographer, Mr Buckley took many photographs for the “Weekly Press.” He remembers the five daily newspapers published in the early 1900s—“The Press,” the “Evening News,” the “Lyttelton Times,” the “Star,” and the “Sun”— and three illustrated weekly papers—the “Weekly Press,” the “Canterbury Times," and the “Spectator.” Five of the publications published his work. One of his most vivid memories is of the day at Lyttelton when he and the late Mr J. V. Taylor took photographs of Captain Robert Scott and his crew on the Discovery, shortly before she sailed in 1901. When the Terra Nova was in Lyttelton about 1910 he visited Quail Island and photographed Captain Scott, his wife, Captain Oates, Dr Wilson, and many of the crew with the ponies they took to the Antarctic. For more than 20 years Mrs Buckley has been a member of the Friends of the Hospital, and has knitted hundreds of garments for the association. She is also a life member of the Women’s

branch of the Citizens’ Association.

The couple have one son and three daughters—their elder son died in World War ll—eight grandchildren, and 14 great-grandchildren. Mrs Buckley is 81, Mr Buckley is 84, and both are in excellent health. Mr Buckley, who played Rugby football for Canterbury in 1909, still rides a bike—one he has had for 35 years.