A FORMER headteacher of Austwick Primary School and his wife celebrate their diamond wedding anniversary next week.

Philip and Margaret Hamby, who live in Giggleswick, enjoyed a wartime wedding 60 years ago after meeting in a convalescent home where both were working - Mr Hamby as an Army physical training instructor helping patients back to fitness and Mrs Hamby as a Red Cross cook.

They were married in Mrs Hamby's home town of Rowington, near Warwick, on January 29 1944.

Mr Hamby hailed from Penistone and was about to embark on his second year of teacher training when the war broke out.

The Army gave him and his fellow students six months to finish their training before they were drafted.

Mr Hamby, who wanted to teach physical education, went first into the Royal Artillery then became a physical training instructor.

Before joining the Red Cross, Mrs Hamby had attended domestic science college and worked in an orthopaedic hospital catering for 600.

After their marriage the couple moved around as Mr Hamby embarked on his career in education, holding posts in schools at Barnsley, Warwick, Leamington and Solihull before coming to Austwick as headteacher in 1970. He stayed there until his retirement 10 years later.

They have two children - David, who lives near Huddersfield, and Helen, who lives in Embsay - and now have five grandchildren and one great grandchild.

A year after moving to Austwick the couple went to live in Giggleswick in the shadow of St Alkelda's Church and have stayed there ever since.

A keen cricketer in his younger days, Mr Hamby has always been interested in sport and still follows Barnsley, the football club his father took him to see as a five-year-old boy. He served as church treasurer for 20 years and Mrs Hamby is a former member of the North Craven Flower Club.

The couple put the secret of a happy marriage down to give and take.