WHEN Maureen and Maurice – who is universally known as Mac – McKinney were married 60 years ago all their friends called it a royal mail wedding.

But it was nothing to do with Mac proposing through the post – it was because they both worked for the Royal Mail Line shipping company, Southampton, where they met.

In 1967, the couple moved to Worcester and although it’s now a long walk to the sea, Mr McKinney has retained his love for merchant shipping and one of his main interests has been to give talks to local groups about the subject.

His fascination with shipping goes back to his childhood holidays in New Brighton, Merseyside, when his father used to take him to watch the seaborn commercial traffic heading out into the Irish Sea.

After Army service in England and India at the end of the Second World War, Mr McKinney returned to England in 1947 and took a job in the offices of the Royal Mail Line, which specialised in passenger and cargo traffic to South America.

Here his gaze out to sea was diverted by a pretty young telephonist and soon they were moored together for life after their wedding at Netley Abbey, near Southampton, on September 2, 1952.

But Mac then switched his career to sales and joined Cadburys.

In the late 1960s the couple moved to Worcester and bought a property in Linley Close, Northwick, where they still live. When Cadburys closed in the city, Mac commuted to Bourneville, Birmingham, until 1985, when he retired.

During 45 years in Worcester, Mrs McKinney has been involved with numerous community groups and societies and for 19 years was a teaching assistant at Northwick Manor Infants School.

She still helps out at what is now a primary school. “I just love ‘my’ children. Every one of them,” said Mrs McKinney.

The couple have three daughters, five grandsons and one great grandson and hopefully all will be gathering together for a diamond wedding party at the Bear and Ragged Staff, Bransford , near Worcester, on Sunday, October 21, when they aim to really push the boat out.