DAREDEVIL couple, Kay and Brian Lamb of Bere Ferrers, celebrated their diamond wedding with a family gathering.

Brian, Bere Ferrers Parish Council vice chairman, and Kay, a local arts and music enthusiast and WI member, remembered how love first blossomed over 60 years ago at a community arts and fancy dress ball in the remote Zambian countryside.

The pair first met at the event while Brian was a police officer (in the former British-ruled Northern Rhodesia) and Kay a midwifery sister. Brian said: ‘We both separately turned up at the festival in fancy dress - she loved horses and went as a bareback horse rider. I went as a daredevil motorbike rider because I rode a Norton police bike. We got on so well, that we spent the rest of our lives together. She’s a wonderful woman.’

They spontaneously joined in the final event parade at Broken Hill (now Kabwe) with Kay standing on Brian’s bike saddle, for which they received an award for ‘The Most Daring Act’.

The picture shows them cutting their anniversary cake with Brian’s former police ceremonial sword, while Kay holds the card and message from HM The Queen. The cake also marks the fancy dress parade.

They spent 15 years in the country before moving back to the UK so their three children could continue their education. Their last five years was spent with Brian being seconded with his family, to the Outward Bound Lake School on Lake Tanganyika, with Kay running a clinic at the school as a volunteer and in the community where she was affectionately called ‘Sister Landrover’ for driving to visit distant patients.

They lived in Northumberland and then in Hampshire where Brian worked in outward bound education and Kay as a nursing sister.

They retired and moved to Bere Ferrers to be near family. Picture by Ellah Milne