A GERMAN man and an English woman who married just three years after the end of the Second World War have celebrated 60 years of happiness together.

After Walter Bernstein decided to emigrate to these shores in 1946, not knowing a single word of English, he met his wife-to-be Gladys at a bike rack outside an ice-cream parlour near Cripplegate Park, St John’s, Worcester.

In a whirlwind romance that only started six months previously the couple decided to tie the knot at the city’s St Clement’s Church, Henwick Road, on Saturday, November 20, 1948.

Mr Bernstein, who also celebrated his 85th birthday yesterday, said: “It was just love and that was it.”

He recalled how as a 25-year-old former German soldier, he came to live in England.

“I was on the Russian front and as the war finished I was wounded and went into hospital,” he said.

“When I was ready to go out of hospital I decided I didn’t want to go back to where I lived so I emigrated to England in 1946.

“As I came into England I didn’t speak any English but I found work here on a farm in Stoulton and worked there for 27 years. I soon learned on the farm what was this and that.”

Mr Bernstein said his work at the farm required him to make regular trips on his bicycle into Worcester and it was on one such occasion he met 21-year-old Gladys.

“It didn’t take us long to get married,” said Mr Bernstein, who also worked at Metal Castings, Droitwich Road, Worcester. “We met in May 1948 and got married in November 1948.

“As we were young I told Gladys ‘I think we might as well get married’.”

Former Christopher Whitehead High School pupil Mrs Bernstein joked: “He never asked me, he just told me.”

Mrs Bernstein, who worked for Cinderella’s before switching to Kays where she worked for about 30 years, said her family instantly took to her husband-to-be.

“They idolised the ground he walked on,” she said. “My mum didn’t take long to get us up in front of the vicar.”

Mrs Bernstein, now aged 81, said she could not believe they had been married for so long.

“It’s no different now to what it was 60 years ago,” she said.

Mr Bernstein said: “We have had some good years together. We are still happy.”

Although the couple who now live on Hanbury Road, Droitwich, have no children they said they would got out tonight for a celebratory meal with nephews and nieces.