ENGAGED FOR FORTY YEARS

Dominion, Volume 30, Issue 46, 18 November 1936, Page 4

ENGAGED FOR FORTY YEARS

Marriage Ends Couple’s Long Betrothal MR. AND MRS. J. TURVEY Au engagement that began Ju years ago in Bradford. England, ended quietly yesterday afternoon in Friends’ House, Wellington, when Mr. John Thomas Turvey, aged t>o, of Kohimarama, Auckland, married Miss Mary Hannah Huntington, aged 58, of Bradford. Once fellow-schoolchildren, they are now to spend the autumn of their days together, thousands of miles from the country of their birth. To marry the man she had not seen for 35 years, Miss Huntington left Yorkshire about three months ago and arrived in Wellington on October 17. She would have kept dark the secret of her journey, but relations in England gave it away. Her romance became public property overnight, and she and her fiance were the centre of unusual interest.

There was nothing unusual, however, about the wedding yesterday. The bridegroom, like all bridegrooms, seem-. ed nervous and ill at ease; but the bride, dressed in grey lace and carrying pink roses and sweet peas, came in smiling with her brother, Mr. R. 11. Huntington. Seatouu. Both spoke the marriage words quietly and clearly. Signing the register was a much less formal affair, and the couple chatted happily as they did it. Afterward I hey posed for the camera outside the Friends’ House door and were pelted with confetti and rose petals as they walked to the car, Mrs. 'Purvey laughing gaily—her friends call her “a second Gracie Fields” for her wit and cheerfulness. The form of the ceremony was based on the Quaker marriage service, but as Mr. Turvey is an Anglican, the Rev. B. J. Williams officiated. Best man was Mr. R. W. Huntington, and the bridesmaid Miss F. M. Huntington. About thirty guests gathered afterward for the wedding breakfast at Mr. R. H. Huntington’s home in Seatoun. The couple left last night for Auckland by the Limited express. They are to live at Kohimarama. (Picture on Page 9.)