MARRIED OVER 70 YEARS

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXXVII, Issue 19806, 23 May 1934, Page 12

MARRIED OVER 70 YEARS

DARBY AND JOAN. A remarkable Darby and Joan partnership, unbroken after over 70 years, exists in Southampton. The couple are Mr and Mrs James John Kingsnorth Chatfield, of Fremantle, who were married in 1863. Mr Chatfield, who is 91, is a native of Maidstone. “Bess"—as he affectionately calls his wife —is three years his junior, and was bom at Rottingdean, near Brighton. They met on a day's outing in the year of the Great Exhibition. Now they live with a married daughter in a cottage overlooking the great new docks at Southampton. The walls of the little room in which the old couple spend most of their days are almost hidden behind scores of faded photographs depicting events and people connected with their lives. There is a remarkable portrait gallerv of their progeny—ten children—five of whom survive—nine grandchildren, and ten great-grandchildren. “I’ve- been a rolling stone all my life,” Mr Chatfield stated in an interview. “I began my career as a printer's devil at Brighton, and among other jobs I have had are those of ironmonger’s assistant, laboratory assist ■ ant, wine cooper, cellarman, insurance agent, and boardinghouse proprietor, “Bess has been a wonderful wife, and all our years we have been as happy as two turtle doves.”