John and June Le Gros (née Barton) met as teenagers at Georgetown Youth Club when Mr Le Gros was home on leave from a merchant navy training college.
They married at St Luke’s Church on 23 June 1960 and plan to mark their anniversary with a socially-distanced celebration with their family.
‘I left Victoria College when I was 15 and went to a merchant navy training college called HMS Worcester,’ said Mr Le Gros (81), who as a child remained in Jersey during the Occupation while his future wife was evacuated to Poole. ‘During term times while I was at HMS Worcester I would come back, as I still had lots of friends from Victoria College who I would go around with that frequented the youth club. That’s how I started going to Georgetown and met June.’
Mrs Le Gros remembers their wedding day fondly. ‘It was a beautiful sunny day, and our reception was at the Ritz Hotel so people walked through the park,’ she said.
Following the wedding John and June went to England for their honeymoon, flying to Gatwick on a Dakota and taking the train down to Exeter for a week.
Mr Le Gros had just qualified as an officer in the merchant navy when they were married, but following the birth of their first daughter he decided a change of career would allow him to see his family more often.
‘I served on various ships with P&O, and then our first daughter was born ten months after we got married. I was here when she was born, and after I came back from a six-month voyage I decided I wanted to see them more often.’
Mrs Le Gros added: ‘As soon as the family came along he decided it was best to be in the Island and started working at the local Customs, while I was working in Hill Street for Bailhache & Bailhache as a receptionist, which I quite enjoyed.’
They currently live in St Clement and have three daughters – Jane, Anne and Sara – as well as three grandchildren.
Mr Le Gros enjoys cricket, of which a particular highlight was umpiring a match in Barbados between England and the West Indies over-50s.
‘It was the highlight of my umpiring career,’ he said. He also plays lawn bowls at the Sun Bowls club and golf.
His wife of 60 years, meanwhile, is involved with the Girl Guides group, the Trefoil Guild. She also volunteers with the League of Friends – a charity that recently donated £75,000 to the Hospital.
When asked the secret to a long and happy marriage, Mr Le Gros said: ‘It’s a bit of give and take – the children take up a lot of time, and you just mix in.’
Mrs Le Gros added: ‘You just go with the flow, as they say, and hope you’re doing it the right way.
‘Nobody teaches you,
so it’s a lot of common sense, I think, in many respects.’
