A SOUTH Lakes couple have joined a platinum elite after celebrating their 70th wedding anniversary.

John and Jean Fuller, of Fairbank, Kirkby Lonsdale, marked their seven decade marital milestone with a party in the town on Tuesday.

Achieving 70 years of marriage remains uncommon, despite each generation of couples living longer. Last year, the Queen sent out just 1,200 messages of congratulations to platinum couples compared with 27,000 for those celebrating 60 years of marriage.

John and Jean were married in Croydon, Surrey, on May 19, 1945 - 11 days after VE Day. At the time, John was a 20-year-old officer with the Highlanders Light Infantry.

He later became a clergyman in what was then the Presbyterian Church of England before going on to work for 20 years as a personnel officer with Shell Mex and BP in Wythenshawe, Manchester.

Jean worked for a number of years as a ward clerk at Withington Hospital in Manchester.

The couple, who have three children and four grandchildren, said their recipe for a long, happy marriage was to 'keep going through adversity, have shared values and interests and make each other cheerful'.

They moved to Kirkby Lonsdale in 2009 to be near their younger son Mark, who runs The Sun Inn with his wife Lucy.

The inn was the venue for the couple's platinum celebration on Tuesday.