Diamond by name for six decades, a husband and wife are now officially a diamond couple after celebrating their 60th wedding anniversary.

Ann and Bill Diamond first met in the 1950s at a school for deaf children in Margate when they were just 10 and 11 years old.

But having moved apart as their families lived in different parts of the country, a chance encounter in the Thanet town a few years later saw them reunited and they have been inseparable ever since.

They started dating at age 16 and rekindled their friendship after bumping into each other while they were both out on a day trip in Margate.

Their youngest son Del explained: “When they left school my mum stayed with her parents in Broadstairs and dad moved down to Hastings as he boarded at the deaf school.

“It just so happens that when dad was 16 or 17, he got a coach day trip back to Margate to go to Dreamland.

“My mum was meeting her two friends at the clock tower on the seafront but her friends let her down.

“Mum was thinking maybe her friends were in Dreamland so she walked to the funfair and as she walked down the slope where the entrance is, she bumped into my dad who was with his two friends and that’s when they met again and that was where it all started.”

In 1960, Bill moved in with Ann at her parents’ home in Broadstairs – a house of 11 children.

They got engaged the same year and married four years later on October 17, 1964 at St Peter’s Church in Broadstairs.

In 1966, they moved into their first home together in Broadstairs where they welcomed their first three children Robert, Chris and Linda.

They moved to Whitstable in 1970 where they had their fourth child Del and their family was complete.

Mr Diamond, who worked as a furniture fabricator, got a job a Marley Foam in Lenham so the family moved to Ashford in 1976 and have lived in the same house in Kennington ever since.

The pair have 11 grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

Now in their 80s, Del says his parents are just as in love as ever before.

He said: “They still hold hands when they are out together.

“Dad always said the secret to their long marriage was because he was deaf. He has always been a bit of a joker.”

It is said the couple have only ever had one argument in their married life and that was when Ann accused Bill of “taking all the cheese”.

But it turned out it was one of their sons who had fed it to their friends when they had come round.

To celebrate the milestone anniversary, their four children organised a surprise party for them at the Kennington Carvery in Ashford on October 19.

Their children say Ann and Bill were very surprised and loved celebrating with friends and family.