WHEN he gave the Queen “a lift up so she could look over a wall at Windsor Castle to see Viscount Montgomery’s funeral procession”, little did William Storey realise that nearly 40 years later he would one day receive a card from the monarch congratulating him and his wife Jessie on their diamond wedding anniversary.

The couple, who live in Clover Leaf Court, Alton, celebrated 60 years of marriage on September 24 with a party for their family, neighbours and friends organised by Judy Morgan, manager of McCarthy and Stone.

“It was a wonderful occasion‚“ said Jessie.

“Judy decorated the communal lounge and there was a cake and wine and neighbours came bringing cards and presents. I can’t tell you how grateful we both are for all the fuss they made of us and although we have only been here a year we are all like one big family.”

Both are a long way from their roots as William, 86, was born in Weardale, a lead mining village outside Durham, and Jessie, 85, was born in Durham.

Her father, Thomas Jolly, suffered a gas attack and was captured during the First World War but was given no medical treatment. He survived but it left him with horrendous bayonet wounds and his lungs were almost destroyed.

“He died young, at 54, because of what the gas did to his lungs‚“ said Jessie. “And my mother, Ethel, was left with seven of us, and when my uncle’s wife died she took him and his four children in as well.

“Somehow we managed in a two-up, two-down house with the lavatory outside, but we did eventually moved to a bigger place. However, it was some years before my mother got a pension and that was only 12/6 (60p). Often us children had to go to school with cardboard in our shoes.”

Both left school at 14 and William, whose father was a school caretaker, became an apprentice in the steelworks before joining the RAF and working as a mechanic on Spitfires and Hurricanes.

When he left he became an AA patrolman with a motor bike in Newcastle, but he was to rise up in the company to become a chief inspector.

Jessie had trained as a nurse and one of her first jobs was working in a geriatric ward with patients with dementia.

“We had to be locked in the ward for a month with the patients so they got to know us because it helps people who suffer from the illness if nothing changes around them, especially nursing staff.”

The couple met when Jessie, coming from a late shift at the hospital, was offered a lift by her friend in William’s car to go to a dance, and dancing became one of their main pastimes and a favourite place was the Astoria in Durham.

In 1955, the couple were married in St Edmund’s Church, Durham, and bought their first house in Shincliffe but later, when William got promoted, they moved to Edinburgh.

Jessie became an assistant to a physiotherapist working in the Royal Infirmary and later at Dr Barnardo’s which was the only home in the country for diabetic children.

After their son, William, and daughter, Margaret, were born – the couple also have two grandchildren – Jessie continued her career, and when they moved to Newbury, when her husband was made chief inspector for the AA, she worked at Battle Hospital, Reading, helping children with cerebral palsy and later as an occupational therapist at Prewett Psychiatric Hospital, Basingstoke.

It was while he was at Newbury that William had his encounter with the Queen.

“We were put in charge of the parking for Viscount Montgomery’s funeral at Windsor. On the day my team and I leaned over one of the castle walls to watch it go by when suddenly I heard a woman’s voice saying ‘do you think you could give me a hand to get up there?

“I looked down and it was the Queen who hadn’t been allowed to attend as Lord Montgomery wasn’t entitled to a royal funeral, but she wanted to see it.

“We gave her a hand up and she was able to watch it with us. We didn’t talk much and when it had gone by she thanked us and went away.”

After retiring, the couple enjoyed travelling and dancing, but it also gave Jessie more time to devote to her painting, a talent she shared with her uncles.

Lately she has been able to display her other talent for knitting, making dozens of small red wool poppies which are now on display in the lounge as her tribute to the fallen in both world wars and to the forthcoming Remembrance Day.

“I had an uncle killed in the First World War and then my dad was also gassed and injured, so I just wanted to make a tribute to them and also a reminder of those killed and wounded.

“However, my neighbours here have been kind enough to give donations in return for a poppy, so I have had to make more. I am giving the money to the (Royal) British Legion.

“Also, I have done well with the handmade cards I make and sell for Macmillan, and the money from them has gone toward the £400 we made for the Macmillan coffee morning held here last month.”

Their apartment is also filled with anniversary cards, one signed by all the residents with, of course, the Queen’s in pride of place.

“We have had a very happy life together,” said Jessie, who is now busy working on a Nativity display for the residents to enjoy at Christmas.