LESLIE Hindmarch clearly had a good eye for a pretty girl when he made his regular trips down Keswick’s Main Street to visit the Post Office.

Leslie, who was just seventeen and a half at the time, spotted a young Irish girl on one of those Post Office visits and determined to meet her.

One way young people got together in those days was at village hall dances and when Leslie discovered that the 18 year old girl was planning to attend a dance at Braithwaite Institute, he made plans for a friend to dance with her so that he could butt in on an “excuse me.”

The plan worked because the pair arranged to meet again the following weekend and, after a five year courtship, they were married in Manchester.

And on Tuesday, 70 years later, Leslie and Eileen Hindmarch, who live at Barrow View in Braithwaite, celebrated their platinum anniversary, a remarkable and quite rare achievement in this day and age.

The couple already have a framed copy of the telegram they received from the Queen on the occasion of their diamond wedding ten years ago and now they have a further message from Her Majesty to go with their latest marital landmark.

Memories of that first meeting and the dance when Leslie chipped in to whisk Eileen off her feet remain strong for the 93 year olds.

“I didn’t know Leslie until we went to the dance at the Institute and a friend would pick me for an excuse me dance,” said Eileen. “Gatey Band from Cockermouth were playing that night; they were regulars.”

Eileen comes from Roscommon in Ireland and was in Keswick on a fortnight’s holiday visiting her sister who was a nurse for two local doctors’ children.

Leslie left Keswick School to work at Norman Hodgson’s pharmacy in Keswick, until he was called up for the Army. The couple got a special licence and were married on March 2nd, 1940, because Leslie had to be at Tidworth three days later.

They were married in Manchester and came to Braithwaite to visit Leslie’s mother. Having settled in the Army Leslie opened dental centres and once he got a pass Eileen was able to join him in Devon. “Where Leslie went I went,” she said. “The medics were sent to York then Manchester and Warrington.”

Mr Hindmarch was demobbed in Chester in 1946 and worked for Boots the chemists for 35 years, managing a shop at Heywood. He worked for Boots from leaving the Army until his retirement.

The couple returned to Braithwaite to live 25 years ago in one of the cottages near the village shop which belonged to Leslie’s parents.

The couple are active in village life and go to coffee mornings and school lunches. “I’m easy going and so is Leslie,” said Eileen, looking for one of the reasons why the couple have had such a long and happy marriage. “We don’t go to pubs although we do have a drink and we stopped smoking years ago. We can’t walk very far these days, but there’s plenty going on and we’ve had a wonderful time.”

Their daughter, Mrs Fiona Horton, formerly ran the Rainbow shop in Lower Lake Road, Keswick, and she and her husband Chris now live in Lytham. They have four grown up sons who Leslie and Eileen are exceedingly proud of, and Mr and Mrs Hindmarch have six great grandchildren.

This Saturday a family celebration is to take place at the Lodore Hotel in Borrowdale (pictured). 

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